More than Just a Game
by night-rainbow27
Summary: #12. Koenma gave the Spirit Detective team something to do, though it wasn't exactly what they expected or hoping it to be. They aren't very excited...until Yusuke comes up with an idea to "spice things up."
1. Spice Things Up

**Disclaimer:**I don't believe i aquired anything new in this time... i still don't own anything save for my OCs.

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**Iris's POV**

Some time has passed since the Parasite incident, and while now I was officially part of the Spirit Detective Team, we have had no missions since then. Just my luck: when I join, all the excitement wears off. What I wasn't considering in my argument against Fate was that officially, we haven't had a mission since Sensui. The time spent in Demon World, the tournament held there that was all Yusuke's idea, the Parasite, those weren't official missions. But that was beside the point.

Today, however, I had a ray of hope for something new, something exciting and challenging and it seems I wasn't the only one who saw that ray either. Yusuke could barely sit in his seat as agitated as he was. He rose to his feet several times and started pacing and didn't stop until Hiei threatened him. Even then, when he sat, he tapped his foot the floor rapidly, impatiently. That time I was quicker than Hiei and told him to cut it out – he was only making things worse for all of us.

The rest, including myself, were a little better at hiding our impatience and built-up anxiety for action. Kuwabara, who was sitting on the couch by Yusuke, was simply staring into space. Hiei was standing on the right side of it looking down-right bored as he leaned on his katana that he was previously polishing with the inside of his shirt. I was leaning against the other end of the couch, with my arms folded to my chest just so they wouldn't lie limply to my sides. Kurama was standing right by me and was, naturally, the calmest of us all. I caught his eye a few times, as I did with everybody else except Hiei who didn't give anybody a second glance except his katana. I didn't look at my friends very often though, because I mostly kept my eyes glued to the door.

Yusuke sighed irritably. We have been waiting for a while. My eyes flickered at the closed door again through which Koenma should walk – or glide – though, depending on the form he was in at the moment.

He summoned us here, in his office with no explanation what so ever. I was hoping he had a new mission for us, and I was pretty sure I was reflecting everybody's thoughts on that matter. Things have been pretty dull in the past few months.

Then, finally, the door opened and Koenma honored us with his presence in his toddler form.

"What the _hell_ took you so long?!" Yusuke demanded, getting to his feet at the sight of him.

"I am a busy man, Yusuke," Koenma answered importantly and Yusuke snorted, though I was unsure if it was because of Koenma's statement as a whole or because he called himself a "man."

"So, what's the deal?" Kuwabara got up from the couch too, sounding excited. "Do you have a new mission for us?"

"Well, not exactly—" Koenma started but was interrupted by Yusuke's angry growl.

"Damn it! Where the hell are all the bad guys? In vacation? We haven't had a mission in months!"

"Do you _want_ bad demons lurking around in Human World, Yusuke?" Koenma raised an eyebrow at him, his tone making it sound as if he was questioning Yusuke's sanity.

"Hell yeah, so I can have the satisfaction of sending them back to where they belong!" Yusuke punched his fist in his palm and had a wide grin on his face. "I can take on anybody now, with my new bad ass demon powers!" I slapped my forehead and shook my head.

"I think he likes his job a little too much," I said in a low voice to Kurama and chuckled silently.

"Yes, I believe you're right."

"Don't get so cocky," Hiei's crimson red eyes seemed to pierce Yusuke. "Regardless of how strong you are, there will always be someone stronger out there."

Yusuke snorted, not taking Hiei's words serious in the least. "You doubt me, scrawny boy?" he raised an eyebrow at Hiei, his grin still in place. It seemed like he was taking on every chance he got to get into a fight.

"Careful, Spirit Detective, my blade is drawn. I can slit your throat faster than you can blink."

"I—"

"Shut it!" I bellowed at the two of them, particularly Yusuke. Normally I would enjoy their bickering, but not today. Although I was disappointed that we weren't asked to come for a mission, I still wanted to know what Koenma's reason for this visit was. Their bickering was very distracting and slightly annoying.

Everybody was staring at me, the atmosphere suddenly quiet and tense. They were probably surprised – it wasn't very often that I snapped at them.

"Perhaps," Kurama interceded, coming to my rescue, "we should hear the reason Koenma summed us and leave our threats for later?" he suggested in his calm, placid tone.

Koenma cleared his throat, taking his chance at the silence that settled. "As I was saying, I don't have a mission for you, but I do have something for you to do," he said and I stepped forward the slightest bit. "You could train for the next Demon World Tournament." I suppressed a groan at his suggestion, but Yusuke wasn't as thoughtful.

"But it's still like, more than two years away!" Kuwabara complained and I mirrored his thoughts.

"Precisely why you should start," Koenma pointed out and his brown eyes met each of ours in turn. "You all are strong, but even so, all of you were eliminated early in the tournament. Luna got the farthest, up until Round Three, when she was eliminated and only because she discovered her new level of power. The tournament had a total of seven rounds."

I heard Luna growl softly in my head. She acquired her new powers too late and she was obviously still frustrated about it. She probably would've felt better about her defeat if she wouldn't have gotten them in the first place – by the time she reached those powers, she was already close to being drained.

"That time we were lucky. Things could've ended a lot worse," Koenma eyed Yusuke who, by the looks of it, wasn't even paying attention. He sighed and tried a different approach. "Yusuke, do you remember that even after your Mazaku powers awakened in you, you still couldn't defeat Hokoshin? At least for a while?"

Yusuke stopped whatever he was doing and was now listening intently. "Yeah," he answered.

"It took you close to a year of training to beat him. Improvement takes time," Koenma said and I had to admit he had a point.

"Koenma's right, Yusuke," Kurama said, eyeing his unconvinced friend.

"It's been a months since we've used our powers at all," I pointed out.

"Yusuke, it's not a request, it's an order." Koenma sounded dead-serious.

Yusuke sighed and waved his hand as if it was nothing. "Fine. We're going to start training."

"Excellent," Koenma said, pleased that he was able to convince his hard-headed detective into following his orders.

***

That day, after our disappointing new assignment, we came back to my house to think things through. We were all gathered in my living room, but all I could look at was Yusuke's slumped position on the couch. He was sitting in my armchair with his head on one rest, one of his legs over the other, and his other leg stretched out as far as it would go. One of his arms was folded over his eyes and if I wouldn't have known any better, I would've thought he was sleeping.

"Where should we do it?" Kuwabara asked and I heard Yusuke chuckle under his breath. Knowing Yusuke, I suspected it was at Kuwabara's unintended perverted joke.

"How about right outside?" Yusuke pointed with his thumb in the general direction of my front yard, since he couldn't see.

I shook my head. "Tourists come by here all the time. We might be seen."

"We could go at the old arena in Spirit World where the Dark Tournament was held," Kurama suggested and I stayed quiet, not knowing to which arena he was referring to. By what they told me, I met them right after they came back home from the tournament.

Yusuke raised his arm and frowned at Kurama. "Didn't Sakyo blow it up?"

Kurama shook his head. "About half-way through, the tournament was switched to another arena. The old one is intact," he said and smiled slightly, shifting his green eyes on Kuwabara. "Kuwabara's been there a few times afterward. He can attest to its condition."

I felt was missing an inside joke, but I didn't say anything. Kuwabara looked like he was about to retort to Kurama's comment when Yusuke cut him off. He was suddenly at his feet, though I didn't notice him get up. "Ok. The old arena it is," he said, making his tone sound decisive.

***

"You know," Yusuke said, a grin forming on his lips as he was pacing on the wide arena, "I was thinking…"

I snorted and grinned at him. "You were thinking." It was a mere statement, with no emphasis, but I thought that was enough.

"Is that another power you got with your demon blood?" Hiei taunted, a small evil grin forming on his lips.

Yusuke ignored both of us. "Since we have to train, why don't we make this a little more interesting? Spice things up?" he grinned at us. I frowned, not entirely sure where he was going with this. I looked at Kurama and his expression was, yet again, thoughtful.

"What are you saying, Urameshi?" Kuwabara asked, sounding just as bewildered as I felt.

"Yes, be more specific. Unless you want us to use you as a punching bag. Now _that_ would be interesting," Hiei commented, smirking and I grinned. Hiei was in a good mood, I noted.

"Will you guys shut your traps already? I'm going to explain," he said and jumped down from the arena and walked toward us until the circle we were previously in was united and whole again. Yusuke closed his eyes briefly, annoyed. "I though that maybe we could do this training thing a bit differently. How about we do it though a small tournament of our own?"

I considered his idea and thought that it would definitely be a lot more fun than a routine, dull training. It would certainly motivate us more. I remembered the training Genkai put me and the others though before the Demon World Tournament and I shuddered.

"I'm up for it," I spoke our first and Yusuke grinned at me, glad of my approval.

"Not a bad idea, Spirit Detective," Hiei almost sounded as if he was praising him.

"Let's do it!" Kuwabara sounded excited already.

We all looked at Kurama, who hasn't expression neither an agreement to Yusuke's idea nor disapproval. "It would certainly make things interesting," he said, "but there are a few issues with your idea." Yusuke listened intently, as he always did when Kurama gave him pointers or expressed his opinion. Out of all of us, he listened to Kurama the most. "How will we divide into teams? We have an odd number of people."

Yusuke rubbed his jaw in a habitual motion of him pondering. "Well…I was thinking that maybe we should include the alter egos in the picture also, since they will probably be fighting in the tournament too."

"That will still leave us at seven fighters," Kurama pointed out and Yusuke nodded.

"One pair should go first and then we start with the 'formal' tournament," he said, adding air quotes for the word "formal."

"But then, after the first round, we will have three fighters left. Again, an odd number," Kurama said and Yusuke looked like he was starting to get annoyed that there were so many flaws in his plan.

"Then the person who was originally eliminated will fight again in the second round."

Kurama nodded, pleased with Yusuke's immediate action. "I'm in," Kurama said and that sealed our agreement.

"All right! Anybody care to volunteer?" Yusuke asked us and I personally wasn't too keen of going first. I waited for somebody else to be the guinea pigs. I wasn't entirely surprised to see Kuwabara stepping out of our circle.

"I'll do it," he said, sounding his confident self. He stepped on the arena.

Hiei snorted, but didn't say anything. He obviously didn't step forward for the fight because he thought Kuwabara was below him. Nobody else wanted to take him up on his challenge either.

"Iris," Kurama said in a low voice and I turned to meet his green eyes. "Why don't you go? Out of all of us, I think it would be the fairest fight between the two of you, especially that you're both human," he said. I resisted the urge to grimace. As much as I didn't want to admit it and I wanted to be stronger, Kuwabara was closest to my level.

I sighed, resigned, and stepped forward. Kuwabara looked disappointed for a split second, but changed it the very next. As much as he wanted to fight against Yusuke or one of our really strong friends, it's been a while since he fought at all and he welcomed any challenger.

I braced myself as I pushed myself up on the arena, wondering if he has improved in the past year and half or not. Kuwabara drew out his spirit sword and positioned himself in his habitual offensive stance.

"Ready, set, begin!" Yusuke bellowed enthusiastically, and I had a vague impression that he was imitating Koto.

I turned everybody's thoughts on, as I always did when I was in a fight. Yusuke, as usual, was the loudest, and I tried my best to drown them out and concentrate only on Kuwabara's. I focused on him enough so that the rest only sounded as an annoying hum in the back of my mind.

_This is going to be hard…if she can read my mind, how am I supposed to lead a surprise attack? Oh wait, if she can read my mind, then…oh, damn it! Shut up already!_ I heard him think and I bit my tongue really hard to keep myself from laughing so that he won't know I was already in his mind. If he did, he would be more prone to try to concentrate on _not_ thinking.

"Don't hold anything back!" he yelled at me from quite a distance away.

"You wish," I muttered under my breath, then said louder, "Same to you!" I saw his face break into a grin and he charged at me. At first, he was at normal human, speed, but as I watched him, he slowly became a blur and realized he enhanced his speed in this the time we have been gone too.

I stayed in place, knowing him well enough to know that he will go for a direct attack, exactly like Yusuke would if I would be fighting him – although Yusuke would be considerably faster. I took my defensive position and just as he stepped in front of me, I decided to act quick. I used my arms to push away his armed hand, careful not to touch his spirit sword and with the other I tried to deliver a punch in the jaw. I ignored the gnawing feeling in my stomach that was protesting against me hitting a friend in the face.

_I saw that coming,_ I heard him think.

Kuwabara took my fist into his, twisted it, making me cower and position my body so that I wasn't in pain and was about to bring the spirit sword to my neck and ask me to give up, no doubt. I had other plans. Due to my flexibility, I stretched my leg to block his armed arm and made my Spirit Energy burst out of me like a beam that made him let go of my arm and push him away.

_Whoa, I didn't know she could do that! _

I took him off guard, but instead of going high, like he would probably expect, I did something I rarely do and went low, trying to trip him with my leg. Kuwabara didn't see that and fell to the ground, but got to his feet to soon for me to be able to do anything.

_That was close._ Because he was concentrating so hard on the fight, he hardly had time to think at all and went with his gut instinct, which made him unpredictable if I wouldn't have known him so well.

When we were once again facing each other I felt at a slight disadvantage that I didn't have a weapon and he did but I didn't dwell on it for long. I had to try to win with the resources that I had. Kuwabara charged at me once again, and I charged back, starting to run in his direction. Surprise registered on his features, but it was only fleeting. I used my Spirit Energy to go even faster, and just as I was within a few feet of him, I sidestepped, turned around so that we were back to back, and tried to deliver a blow to the back of his neck – an immobilizing blow. Kuwabara surprised me by knowing exactly what I wanted to do and blocked it with his elbow.

The thought that he knew all my moves suddenly dawned on me. I was surprised I didn't realize that before. Kuwabara, along with the others, knew my strategies exactly – they knew what I would do if I was put in a situation such as this, they knew the moves that I used a lot and were usually successful against people who didn't know what to expect. But they all knew. This would be much harder than I originally anticipated, for I was like an open book to him, to them all. I had to fight in a way that I normally wouldn't just to confuse them and make my moves unpredictable, but this was much harder to do in a fight when you go purely on instinct.

I had only a split second to decide what I was going to do, and instead of retreating and trying to attack from another direction, as I normally would have doe, I spun around so that I was facing him. He didn't expect that, I saw it in his eyes. I concentrated and tried the same move as I did before. This time I was too quick for him to block it. At the last moment, I stored Spirit Energy into my fist and punched as hard as I could.

The blow made him stagger a few steps backward, but I didn't wait for him to recover. I didn't want to give him time to think about his next move. Just as he took another step back, before he looked up at me, I bend low again and tripped him. He fell to the ground and I stepped over him so that he didn't have a way to escape without passing by me.

He looked up at me and grinned. "I can easily get up from this position." He sounded smug, as if I wasn't aware of that.

I grinned back, nonplussed. "And I can easily do this." I called upon my Spirit Energy and concentrated it into my hand, making it start glowing a bright blue. I placed my palm on his stomach. "If I would send my energy through your body right now, you would start bleeding internally and, eventually, die." This was a newer strategy of mine, one I discovered during the Demon World Tournament.

Kuwabara scowled, not expecting me to have a few new tricks since going away to Demon World. He made tried to escape, but I expected that, knowing he wouldn't give up so easily. I quickly grabbed him by the wrist, bent on my knees, and put my still glowing hand on his stomach. "All right, you win," he said and I released the energy stored in my hand. I smiled triumphantly, got to my feet and then I held out a hand for him to help him up. He took it gruffly.

"Thanks. It was a good fight," he said, but didn't sound like he meant it.

I looked at him apologetically, but I couldn't help not to feel the rush of victory. "I trained for six months under Genkai. If it wasn't for that, you would've won."

He shrugged and walked away. I tried not to let his sore-loser attitude amuse me, because it would only make him feel worse. Kuwabara jumped off the arena, sat down, and rested against it. I followed him, but walked all the way up to the others. Yusuke was grinning. He gave me a high-five then walked to Kuwabara.

"A girl beat you, man! A _girl!_" he said as if he found that to be the funniest thing ever.

"Screw you, Urameshi," Kuwabara answered. Yusuke laughed. "Don't worry, Kuwabara. You'll get to fight again at the end," he gave him a hard pat on the shoulder and came back to our circle.

"All right," Yusuke said as if nothing happened, "One of us is out, so we can start the tournament now," he slapped his hands together, already excited. "Should we pick our partners or should we leave it to chance?"

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Hiei asked him, sounding bored.

Yusuke grinned and rummaged through his pocket, revealing a blank dice. "Luckily, I came prepared."

"Chance then. It's fairer," Kurama said and Yusuke nodded in agreement.

"Hold on a second," he said. Then, right before my eyes, I held the dice between his thumb and index finger and closed his eyes as hand alone seemed to be aflame in Demon Energy. Soon enough, names were being carved into each side of the dice. Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei, Iris, Luna and Yoko. "If the dice rolls on our name twice, we'll just roll again," he said and threw it on the floor with no further ado.

The first name that fate selected was Hiei. The next name was Yusuke. He punched the air with his fist in exuberance and took the dice off the floor.

"Payback time," Hiei grinned and stepped out of the circle.

"You're so on!" Yusuke yelled in his excitement and got on the arena. "But you're not allowed to kill me, so you can't use your Darkness Flame technique," he grinned down at his partner.

"I almost forgot," Hiei grinned back and followed Yusuke, though he set some distance between them.

"Let the tournament begin!" Yusuke hollered. "Let's see who shall win between the ever-famous Spirit Detective and Mazaku demon, Yusuke Urameshi, and the frog covered in eyes, Hiei!"

Hiei drew out his katana. "I'm going to teach you some manners," he said in what sounded like a dangerous tone, but he was grinning.

"Don't bother," Yusuke yelled from the other end of the arena, "my mom already tried and it didn't work." And with that, both he and Hiei leaped at each other at the exact same time. And so the tournament began.

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******A/N: To make it fit my story, I made it so that the time between them coming home and fighting against Sensui was a lot longer than it was in the anime. I had to do it.**

**I've been working on this for a while, and since i'm done with Scar Night (for a while), i decided to post this. I'm trying to make up for my month of absence, lol.**

**R&R!**


	2. If Looks Could Kill

**Iris's POV**

Watching Yusuke and Hiei fight was like being in the fastest race-car in the world on a normal highway. You had to strain your eyes to even begin to comprehend what was going on and if you happened to blink, you might have missed something important.

Because I was human and my eyes have never encountered such speed before, I could hardly catch anything. Most of their fight was a blur, but there have been times when I would suddenly see them in a tangled position, or one of them blocking the attack of another and stopped momentarily afterward. Every so often, I saw the distinct color of Yusuke's Spirit Gun, or the quick swish of Hiei's katana, but that was it. It was incredibly frustrating for me because, judging by the other members' entranced expressions, it was a good fight. And I was missing it.

_What's going on?_

_They're your eyes, Iris. I can't see any more than you can,_ she reminded me, and I sighed, resigned.

It was over not very long afterward, with Hiei in a position very much like a clinging monkey. He was sitting on Yusuke's extended right leg and was holding onto his left wrist while his left held the katana to Yusuke's neck. Yusuke looked like he had been about to deliver a very powerful punch but Hiei slipped between his fingers at the last moment.

Hiei won that fight.

Yusuke was cursing under his breath like mad.

"You've grown cocky, Spirit Detective. You're stronger than before, I'll grant you that, but your cockiness and overconfidence muddles your concentration," Hiei told him, but I didn't miss the grin. From what I understood from Kurama, Hiei and Yusuke had some scores to settle. My lips twitched when I heard this, but I was too focused on the fight to answer.

"Let's see who's next," Yusuke said and it seemed he was already back to his good mood. Sometimes I wondered if anything touched him at all. He threw the dice on the floor and we watched it bounce until it finally settled, with one name up, facing us. "Kurama, against…" Yusuke trailed off, picked up the dice and threw it again. "Luna," he finished.

I locked eyes with Kurama and he nodded seriously. He went ahead and jumped gracefully on the arena and took his position. I remained where I was.

_Ready? _I asked Luna, feeling the rush of excitement at the opportunity of watching her fight Kurama.

_Been ready since the last time I fought,_ she answered and, as we both agreed upon it, we changed.

The familiar whirlwind caught around me and blocked the sight of the outside world from my eyes. I looked at Kurama and gave him a fleeting smile before my control slipped from my grasp and Luna took over. I felt her lips were still curled, though the smile was her own now. A smile of pleasure and anticipation. She missed fighting, and she knew Kurama would be a worthy opponent. I could feel her own emotions surging though our body, so similar to mine, yet different. Her down-right _need_ to fight, to feel the hilt of her sword in her hand as she wields it, the eagerness of going against yet another opponent, and, above all else, the sense of release and freedom she always got when she was in control.

I could feel everything; her emotions as well as mine, though my own were dimmed, overshadowed in comparison.

Through her eyes, I looked in anticipation at Kurama, waiting for the fight to start. This fight I will be able to see clearly, because Luna was a demon herself, and her eyes were adjusted to the inhuman speed we will witness.

**Luna's POV**

I couldn't help the grin that spread on my lips, not did I have any intention of containing it. It's been too long since I fought against somebody worth my time, last I remember being in the Demon World Tournament. That was too long ago. My body almost ached to stretch its muscles beyond their limit, to go beyond _my_ limit and test it, to wield my sword again, to fight against a worthy opponent.

I took in a deep breath and walked toward the arena, taking a big leap to jump on it. I walked until I was an opposite side of it from Kurama and waited.

"Begin!" Yusuke roared, and I knew I didn't imagine how excited his voice sounded. He enjoyed watching a good fight almost as much as actually taking part in one. My eyes flickered to Yusuke and then to Kurama's green eyes. His eyes revealed absolutely nothing to me. He was already more reserved around me, but now he was even more closed in himself because we will be fighting. Kurama was one of the most cautious demons I have even encountered in my long life, which is why I was so eager to fight him. I wanted to see how he would react to my offensive fighting, him being usually on the defensive, watching for weaknesses, calculating and defending himself as his opponent revealed his powers to him trying to attack.

We stood, unmoving, just keeping our glances locked for possibly a whole minute, maybe more. I knew he wasn't going to strike first, and I also knew that he had much more patience than I ever will, but I somehow wanted to test it at least for a little while. Kurama seemed unbothered by my lack of action, and simply waited. The silence was piercing as we both remained silent and still. Yusuke broke it soon enough with a sigh of irritation mixed with a groan. I could feel heavy vibes of impatience coming from him.

"I know of the expression "if looks could kill," but this is down-right stupid," I heard Yusuke mutter under his breath, but not low enough for us _not_ to hear. Then, he spoke louder, "Are you guys going to fight or bore each other to death?" He didn't enjoy our stare-down, he wanted us to fight.

"Be quiet, Yusuke," Hiei snapped and Yusuke remained quiet, though the vibes continued to float around us unpleasantly.

I grinned at Kurama and decided I couldn't wait any longer either. With my new enhanced speed, I ran toward him. I saw him fight enough to know what he would do and he didn't disappoint. As I made the last step that put him within my range to attack, he took a step back and I followed him suit. He jumped high in the air and I went after him. In my speed, I punched and kicked and back-flipped and tried again from all directions, but he easily kept pace with me, blocking my every try to find a weak spot in his defense. I pushed myself faster, making my moves more unpredictable. He was frowning in concentration, but his control didn't slip as far as I could see. We landed back on the ground a few seconds later and instead of going for a direct attack, I did a back-flip, landed behind him and tried to deliver a kick at the small of his back, putting only enough strength so that I would break his perfect balance. He didn't expect that and I hit him just as he was about to turn around.

Kurama fell forward, but immediately landed on his hand and pushed himself back up again, his read hair flowing behind him. He landed easily, with his back at me and threw me a small crooked grin over his shoulder.

I grinned back and went after him. I punched and kicked from the most awkward directions for me, and I tried to be unpredictable. Kurama knew how I fought; he knew my moves too well and he knew what to expect. This time, however, he was fighting back, using his Rose Whip also. As I was trying to deliver my own attacks, I was blocking his at the same time, as was Kurama with me. We seemed to be evenly matched in martial arts, since neither found a weak spot in the other all this time. We continued like that, until I convinced myself I had to try something else to defeat him. Instead of going forward in my attack, I stepped back, taking him by surprise, though it didn't register on his face.

I called upon my element and made it blow hard around the very edges of the arena. My hair was whipping wildly around my face, but I continued to direct it until it reached the desired speed. The wind, still in the shape of a circle, started closing in on us, slowly, but deliberately. My intention was confusion but when I looked for Kurama, he was gone. I looked around, but I didn't see him anywhere and decided I could probably feel him better than I could see him. I felt his energy coming at me from behind, but I remained still, hoping he would think I didn't notice. I turned around at the last second but I only saw him standing there, a pleasant smile on his face. I frowned, utterly confused, before I felt another wave of energy coming from my behind again.

That time, I was too late. A huge plant sprouted out of the ground and wrapped its long petals around me, pinning my arms tightly around my body, taking away any means of movement I had. It was a diversion. He was running behind me, and because I felt him there, I concentrated on him coming from my behind, not even registering the other wave of energy that came from my front until it was too late.

Reacting on instinct, I concentrated on my element hard and willed it to explode out of my own body, whipping the plant to shreds. Kurama seemed pleased and disappeared once more. I grinned at the challenge, and waited him for to reveal himself. A small red blur appeared within my line of sight and I followed it, waiting for him to stop at least briefly. At first he seemed to be running erratically, but I knew he was just trying to confuse me, trying to make me follow him in another trap, no doubt. Then, he appeared to my right, and I immediately ordered the wind to wrap around his torso, much like his own plant did. It was an instinct reaction, too on the spur-of-the-moment for him to block. He was trapped.

I ordered it to run at top speed, making it seem as if Kurama was caught in a miniature tornado. I tried to break it, but couldn't do it. The wind acted more like a restraining belt than a force of nature. The Rose Whip shattered in contact with it. "If I would make tighten around you any more, you would soon be out of breath," I informed him and tightened the circle around him every so slightly to prove him point. He nodded solemnly and I released him from my grip.

I won the fight. Kurama didn't disappoint, he was just as challenging as I thought he would be, if not more. I could've very well lost if I wasn't paying attention.

"I wouldn't mind fighting against you again, Kurama," I smiled at him as we made our way back to our waiting friends.

He shared my smile and nodded. "You're a worthy opponent. Next time I will use a different strategy."

I chuckled and jumped off the arena. Yusuke was waiting for us with his hand raised, so I humored him and gave him a high five. He was grinning from ear to ear. "That was _awe_some!" I grinned at him, but didn't comment on his praise in any way.

"Who's next?" I asked.

"Well, only Yoko Kurama and Iris are left, so they will fight next," he answered, fiddling his dice between his index finger and forefinger. I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes and gag at his name. I called to Iris instead.

_Ready?_ I asked, mirroring her question.

_As ready as I'll ever be,_ she answered and sounded anxious to my ears. I felt her anxiousness, though it was only a dim feeling overpowered by my own, since I was in control. Still, I could sense it, as well as the reluctance to go against Yoko Kurama. I could sense that she realized, only too well, that he was both much stronger than she was and somebody she disliked, due to my encounters with him. I sighed as the whirlwind enveloped me, robbing me of my freedom once again.

* * *

**A/N: Quick update! This is going pretty well so far, hope you guys like it. It's shorter than the previous, but it was the only appropriate time to break it apart. The Yoko Kurama vs. Iris fight had to go solo. You'll see why when i update.**

**Edit: Thank you, D101 for pointing out some of my mistakes in this chapter. I'm _pretty_ sure i got them all. :D**

**R&R!**


	3. So Human

**Iris's POV**

As the wind died down, the last of its force breezing through my hair carelessly, I looked over at Kurama. He was gone, and instead of his fiery red hair and warm green eyes I was greeted by a much colder figure with flowing silver hair and surprisingly hostile golden eyes, considering this was our first ever meeting. His fox ears were directed at me, as if not wanting to miss any of my movement or any sound I would make, and I saw his long tail twitch form side to side. Annoyed.

I tried not to let it show how much his demeanor intimidated me and I glared back at him with spite. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Yusuke looking back and forth between us, then shrugged and backed away.

Yoko Kurama held my gaze, and I held his. I didn't want to look away and make it seem as if I couldn't look him in the eye, as if I was afraid, or his persona had any effect on me what so ever. Finally, he looked away, and walked toward the arena. In a swift, elegant movement, much like Kurama, he jumped on it and took his position. I walked until the edge and pushed myself us with my hands, since it was too tall for me to jump.

I saw Yoko snicker out of the corner of my eye, as if my inability to jump directly on the arena made me look like a weakling. I scowled, walked toward the other side and turned around to face him. His expression was blank now.

"All right guys, you can begin," Yusuke said, and it sounded as if he was tired of putting up a show like Koto did.

As I watched him, Yoko Kurama slowly started making his way toward me, with long, though lazy steps. It wasn't a threatening gesture; it more gave me the impression that he was walking to be doing something, to not stand still. Or maybe he was doing it because he knew him getting closer had an intimidating effect. His tail twitched again. "It must be torture for you," he started, "to share your body with such a mundane human," Yoko said, and I realized with surprise that he was talking to Luna. I felt deep annoyance when it dawned on me that he was talking to her as if I wasn't even present.

Deep, boiling resentment surged through me, and though part of it was mine, most of its quantity belonged to Luna. I was surprised how very strong it felt though she wasn't in control. Yoko continued. "Such a wild, free spirit such as yourself, caged, is a pity and a waste."

He continued to walk steadily toward me. "I heard, when you were talking to Shuiichi that you and the human have to consent on the change. You could very well refuse and never change back again. Have your freedom." His lips curled, but the smile was far from kind or warm. It was cold, and it was full of venom. For me.

"Than again, you would be stuck with an annoying voice in the back of your head of the rest of your long life, so I'm not sure it's worth it." He kept walking and I gritted my teeth together.

_Don't let him get to you_, Luna warned, but I distinctly heard loathing in her voice. I, however, unlike her, don't have nearly as much self-control when I was angry. When my anger got to my head, I was bound to do something stupid. Luna had the uncanny ability to keep her cool even though, on the inside, a volcano was erupting.

_I'm trying_, I bit back with much more zeal than I originally intended. I immediately felt guilty for my outburst.

"Luna chose to do this. She was well aware of how things will be when she accepted Koenma's offer," I said and tried to make my tone seem even.

"Easy for you to say that when you're the one in charge. What if she changed her mind? What if she despises sharing her body with you?" he raised an eyebrow at me and the smile was still in place. He was close to the middle of the arena by now.

I was taken aback by his words and tried not to show how much they stung. Koenma always told her to give him a heads up if she ever changed her mind and she never did. She have had many chances in the past, but she never did. She hasn't changed her mind. She still wanted to do this. Of that I was positive. On the other hand… I knew how much she didn't like sharing her body. Or, better yet, I knew how much she cared about her freedom. I gave her as much as I could while still being able to be myself. If I could—

_Iris, stop_, Luna commanded me. My eyes refocused from my daze and saw that Yoko had a triumphant smile on due to my silence. _I care about you and protecting people more than my own freedom. If I didn't, I would never have been able to do this,_ she said._ And I definitely don't despise sharing your body. You're my closest friend and you've given me more freedom than possibly any other of my descendants._

I remained silent, though I saw the contrast of one word between Yoko and Luna. She noticed the direction of my attention. _This body is rightfully yours, Iris. You were born in this body. I am just a visitor. A parasite, in a manner of speaking._

_Don't,_ I warned, feeling my insides clench painfully at the loathsome word.

_This body is yours, not mine, Iris,_ she said and sounded solemn. _I could walk out of it at anytime and share it with somebody else. The fact that I didn't should be proof enough._

I didn't answer to that, but her reassurance made me feel better, though still a bit insecure. I hated it that Yoko Kurama got to me like this, but he somehow revealed some things to me that haven't crossed my mind before. Was I vain that I haven't thought of those things before? Or selfish?

I refocused my gaze upon Yoko Kurama and saw that he had stopped in his tracks, as if giving me time to thinking his words through. I narrowed my eyes at him and that only seemed to make his smile grow wider.

"You don't know anything," I snapped at him in what I knew was a very late comeback.

"It seems I know enough to have made you think over what I said for the past, oh…I don't know," he made a mock thoughtful expression, "five minutes?" he flashed me a grin that chilled me to my bones. "I would bet you took longer to figure out I was right, though," he cocked an eyebrow at me and I exploded from that simple gesture.

I had enough of his attitude and his talk as if he knows me or knows Luna any more than we know him. I charged toward him and saw that his grin was still in place. Then, even though I kept my eyes on him the entire time, he disappeared. I stopped dead in my tracks. Where did he go? I looked around the arena but he was nowhere to be seen.

"So human," I heard his voice murmur behind me. When I looked over my shoulder, he was leaning in, his face close to mine. His nose was wrinkled and his eyes were narrowed. Any hint of smile was gone and now there was only hostility. "So weak," he breathed. His sudden appearance startled me slightly, confused me and I didn't remember what I was about to do. My anger was still there, but was muffled by my confusion. "So predictable."

Before I had the chance to answer or to think of my previous plan of attack or to do anything at all, in the blink of an eye he struck me across the face with the back of his hand, so hard I felt like the air was pushed out of my body and the ground slipped from under my feet. Then my world went dark. I touched my cheek and I felt it moist.

Blood.

I felt the intense strain of the muscles of my face and I realized I closed my eyes firmly against the pain. When I opened my eyes, I was a good ten feet away from him. I ground my teeth together in anger, but that only made it worse. I felt the coppery taste of blood in my mouth and I spit it out, disgusted, though not with the taste of blood itself, but with myself and my lack of attention. I brushed the remains of blood from my face with the back of my hand and went for another attack. This time I pushed myself to my limit and I tried to be confusing. He followed me easily with his eyes.

When I got within a few feet of him, he disappeared, and though that time I continued to move, he once again materialized behind me and struck me across my other cheek. This time I didn't ponder on it. I let my anger run free and tried not to think of the pain, regardless of how hard that was. I ran towards him again and he did the exact same thing, resulting in me getting hurt and not being able to retaliate. I continued to go on like this for a while. It was incredibly frustrating to me that I couldn't get close to him. Every time I would try, he would appear right behind me or at my side and deliver either a punch to the gut, a kick to my side, anything to get me on the ground.

"So weak, so slow," he would murmur every so often, "and so incredibly ordinary. How can Luna stand to be in the same body as you?"

I got up again, though I lost track of how many times I fell to the ground during this fight. My entire body was aching and I winced in pain, but I tried not to say anything or make any sound that let him know in how much pain I was in. I failed.

"I resent the fact that this body actually touched yours intimately," he hissed then disappeared again.

My anger flared up again, but my mind seemed muddled and numb by the pain I was in. I started running again, though I was considerably slower and much less coordinated in my movements.

_Iris, you must stop this. Can't you see you can't even get within a few feet of him? _Luna was angry, and rightfully so. I was pushing myself to go in his trap just because I was stubborn.

_It pisses me off!_ I said, though that was hardly a good explanation.

_Why don't you try something else? Try to get in his mind? He would cower at your feet in a matter of minutes._

_No. I will not,_ I said firmly. Luna was confused, I could feel it, so I elaborated before she could ask. _I can't make myself do it anymore, not after the parasite._

_But the demon that attacked Kurama—_

_That was different_, I thought quickly, trying to get it out and focus on the fight, _I wouldn't have been able to save him otherwise._

She understood what I meant and didn't question me further. Luna remained silent after that, but her anger at me didn't fade one bit. I stopped running and took a deep breath. Yoko was in the exact same place as before. The entire time, I noticed that he kept his attention on me alone. Then, an idea came to me.

I concentrated on the spot beneath his feet. Focusing on that spot, the ground slowly began to shake. A fiery circle erupted around him, but he only gave a small smile in response; it didn't seem to bother him in any way, nor did he try to run away. I concentrated harder and then the circle erupted from underneath his feet, leaving only a deep hole behind and Yoko Kurama gone.

I knew he could get out of that easily because this time, unlike the first time when I used this technique, when I used my energy to dig a hole until the center of the earth, I made this one much smaller. Instead, I walked over to the hole and tried out something than I haven't before, but Yusuke taught me repeatedly: his Spirit Gun. I pointed it directly down and focused as much energy as I could in my index finger. The tip of my finger slowly started to glow a bright blue, the beam getting bigger and bigger. I looked at Yusuke form the corner of my eye and saw that he was grinning widely, glad I was finally trying out his old technique.

Then, when I felt I couldn't put even a drop more of energy into my Spirit Gun, I released it. The energy stored it in, combined with the momentum it would gain over the distance, and speed due to the gravity, would make it a powerful blow. I watched it as it went deeper and deeper into the pit until I could see its glow no more.

I knew it wouldn't kill him. I didn't have enough strength or energy to kill him even if I wanted to. But maybe it would injure him enough to weaken him to want to give up, though I doubted that.

I waited. And waited. Nothing happened. I heard loud whispers from the sidelines. I had a fleeting moment of panic and thought that maybe my Spirit Gun _did_ kill Yoko Kurama and, in consequence, Kurama himself. But that was impossible. A high B class could never kill an S class. Yoko Kurama can't be dead.

I leaned over the great hole and strained my eyes to see him, but it was too deep, too dark.

_I did not kill him, I did _not_ kill him, _I kept chanting in my head, starting to feel really panicky by now. The hole wasn't _that_ deep. He should've came out by now. Then—

A long, thick object sprouted out from the hole so fast I hardly had any time to process what it is, let alone panic. It hit me squarely in the stomach, knocking the air out of my body and sent me flying away from the hole. I hit the ground with a hard _thud_ and I panted, from fright and surprise. I tried to get myself up but it was just then that I realized how incredibly sore I was, all over my body. I ached everywhere and only when did I look at myself I noticed that I was bleeding in several places.

I gritted my teeth against the pain and struggled to pull myself to my feet. It took me some effort, but I did it. When I looked up, there was Yoko Kurama. Alongside, there was a huge plant that seemed to have come from within the hole. It was very odd; it had no petals, and instead of leaves, it had very thick, rapidly moving tentacles. One of those was, no doubt, what had hit me.

Without another word, a snicker, a smart comment, or any reaction what so ever, he launched toward me in the usual blur. I didn't even realize what he meant to do until I was receiving a series of hard punches and kicks, too hard for me to pretend like it didn't hurt and much to fast for me to block. I was literally like a punch bag for him, willing and unresponsive to his punches. When I would be on the ground, he would wait for me to get up and then start all over again. That simple movement, balancing myself on my own two feet, seemed like it took all my energy.

Three times it happened that he was about to deliver an attack but he stopped at the last moment, flinching. I couldn't identify the reason behind it, mainly because my mind went completely numb form the pain. The third time it happened though, I distinctly saw a muscle on his check twitch as he gritted his teeth, and then I heard him mutter angrily "Schuiichi" under his breath. Then the stream of attacks started again.

The last two ones were the toughest to bear. He hit me in the jaw with his fist and then delivered another blow to my side with his leg. I was in so much pain I didn't even know where I hurt anymore, because I hurt _everywhere_. I couldn't feel anything else except the pain. Then my world went black. I couldn't see at all, but I could still hear and feel everything. Why didn't he hit me hard enough for me to reach unconsciousness and end this fight?

I felt somebody grab me by the collar and I knew it was him. I felt his breath on my face and I pictured him snarling at me. I felt movement, but I couldn't identity it.

"Yo, stop!" Yusuke's voice was loud and angry. "She's out of it, she can't go on anymore. Fight's over."

"She's still conscious," he said, completely nonplussed.

"I don't freaking care!" Yusuke roared, this time much louder. Was he getting closer or was he just yelling louder? "She's not your punching bag!"

I heard loud chatter, but I couldn't focus on it. I heard steps coming my way, but I couldn't know whose it was. I heard hard breathing. That was Yoko Kurama. His grip on my collar tightened. He didn't want to let me go.

"The fight's over." Yusuke's voice was much lower and much more dangerous this time. He was right there with us. A long moment of silence passed, then, finally, Yoko Kurama released me. He threw me aside as if I was nothing more than a piece of trash. I mentally prepared myself to hit the ground, holding my breath as if the action could protect me against the pain, but I somehow never did. A pair of strong arms caught me and I didn't care who it was. I was glad I didn't have to endure anymore.

"Iris." Yusuke's voice was very close. I could feel worry even in his breath as it lingered on my face. "How are you? Where does it hurt? We need to take you to back home." He was frantic. I must've looked even worse after the last series of punches and kicks, since Yusuke didn't normally panic at the sight of injuries and blood unless they were really serious.

My mind cleared slightly, and I heard more footsteps. I forced myself to open my eyes slightly and saw that Hiei and Kuwabara were coming to my side too. Hiei's face was expressionless, but his scowling eyes held just the tiny bit of worry in them. I was touched. Kuwabara, on the other hand, was even more frantic than Yusuke was. He was sputtering at my side, sounding a mixture of worry and anger, but I couldn't make out a single word of what he was saying. Hiei told him to shut up and I was grateful. Kuwabara was being very loud, to my ears at least.

I opened my eyes a little wider, and inched my neck the tiniest bit to look around.

"He's changing now. He'll be gone soon," Yusuke said, and though that wasn't necessarily why I looked, it nonetheless answered my question. I wasn't looking for Yoko to make sure he left. I was looking for him to see if he changed into back Kurama.

He did. I craned my neck to see, sending sharp pangs of pain down my spine that I tried to ignore and failed. The silver hair changed once again to the fiery red that I yearned to see. Kurama, however, wasn't looking at me. He was with his back at me, his posture looking stiff and his fists clenched through my lazy eyelids. I was losing my grip over my consciousness, and fast.

"Kurama, get your ass over here!" Yusuke yelled and I frowned against the volume. His face was too close to mine, his voice too loud.

I looked over at Kurama and saw that he turned around, his green eyes were glazed in pain and were looking right at me. He took in a sharp breath when I met his eyes, but didn't move.

"Yo, Fox-boy, are you just going to stand by and have your girlfriend bleed to death?!" Yusuke was angry and it almost sounded as if he was angry at Kurama, when none of this was his fault. I wished he wouldn't be; his anger hurt my head even more than it already did.

Kurama still didn't move. Yusuke grunted angrily, and started muttering and cursing under his breath. I only caught small fragments, like "stupid fox," "coward," "I'll take her." "Fine," he said at a normal level. And with that, he picked me up in his arms – something that would've normally surprised me, for he never did that before, but right now I was too numb to register that fact in my mind. He walked over to Kurama, gave him a glare and then he broke into a run. I didn't know where he was taking me, but I didn't care. I trusted Yusuke. I vaguely heard Luna's frantic words in my head and then I felt a similar comforting presence and I knew, even when I was close to passing out that Sasha had come to my rescue. And so, I let my control slip completely and allowed myself to sink deep into what felt like a painful dream.

* * *

**A/N: And that was it. Truthfully, this fight surprised me too when i wrote it. Not much to say, pretty straight-forward.**

**Thanks for all the faves and alerts and for your reviews! And for those who are shy and read but don't review! **

**R&R!**


	4. Don't Let Go

**Kurama's POV**

I don't know for how long I stayed like that, watching Yusuke's back as he carried Iris away until I finally willed myself to follow. I did so at a distance though, because I didn't think I could look at her blood-covered figure and not do something stupid and out of character. I was so incredibly disgusted with myself, just as if I was the one who hurt her so, even though it wasn't actually _me_ who did it. Me and Yoko were two completely different people who happened to live in the same body, much like Iris and Luna.

Even though it wasn't _me_, I disgusted and utterly ashamed and guilty because it was _my _body. My body did the most impossible thing imaginable and hurt one of the people I cared for most. The girl I loved. I frowned, feeling deep, angry lines form on my forehead as I thought on how Yoko had treated her. It had been a fair fight until I could see through his eyes that she couldn't go on anymore and he continued on with his stream of attacks. I tried not to interfere despite how much it pained me, ripped me to shreds in the inside to see her getting hurt. That is, until he crossed the line. I tried to regain control and force my presence on him so we would change back, but somehow he was very determined on not letting me. His conscience left like it was shielded by a brick wall, unyielding and impenetrable.

I was trapped inside, feeling hopeless to defend her.

I tried to think back on any other circumstances when Yoko might have shown any kind of resentment toward Iris and couldn't find any. The only feeling I can recall is dislike. Sometimes annoyance. But never this deep loathing. I never thought him capable of that, knowing how I felt about her.

If he wasn't so much more powerful than I was, I would've vowed right then not to change into Yoko Kurama ever again. But it would be selfish to do so, I knew. Yoko Kurama brought us victory when I failed, more than once. I failed to win when it mattered and now I failed to save Iris from an injustice that was out of her hands.

I had only once been as disgusted with myself as I was now: when I was forced to kill Amanuma, the Game Master. Only this time, it was somehow worse. Killing Amanuma was the best choice to be made in that situation, to be able to move forward in finding Sensui and stop the apocalypse from happening. Today, my body – therefore _I –_ almost killed Iris with my bare hands for absolutely no reason at all save for hatred.

***

This journey seemed longer than ever before. I followed Yusuke through the portal that took us to Human World, close to her house. I willed myself to catch up with him then. When I did, he said nothing to me; he acted as I wasn't even there. I took one look as Iris, took in a sharp breath at the shocking state she was in and gritted my teeth together so hard I thought my jaw would snap from the pressure. He carried her the entire way and placed her body in such a position so that it seemed as if he was cradling her in his arms, her head resting against his chest.

It would look rather peaceful if it wasn't for the blood that was covering most of the surface of her clothes and bare skin, the many wounds that were visible now through the holes and the dry blood, along with the cuts and bruises that were spread throughout her body. It was no wonder she eventually fainted, the pain becoming too hard for her to bear, bur it was surprising she, as a human, resisted for so long. Just then, I barely made out a faint outline that seemed to be following us, particularly Yusuke.

"Sasha?" I whispered softly. I saw her stop momentarily from her graceful stride and she looked at me. Her eyes right then, in her Spirit Form, were like a mirror or Luna's. Grey and cold, judgmental and accusing. Then she looked back at Iris and ignored me for the rest of the way home.

When we finally got to Iris's house, Yusuke tried to go through the door, but it was locked. I heard him curse under his breath, then started walking around the house. I followed him, scowling, and wondered what he was planning to do. Or, better yet, dreading. Sure enough, he went to the back door, tried to open it and when he saw it was locked, he kicked it open with his leg. The door fell hard on the ground and he simply walked on it and toward the living room.

"I don't think Iris will be very pleased that you broke her door," I said, looking over my shoulder at it.

"I don't think she will be very pleased to see you when she wakes up, knowing that you did nothing to help her," he retorted bluntly and I remained quiet. He was right, after all.

Yusuke went up the stairs and toward Iris's room, and placed her as gently as he could on the bed. Then he straightened up and groaned. "Damn," he muttered under his breath, "She's heavier than she looks." Then his hard eyes were upon me. "Well?" he prompted, "don't just stand there and look pretty, help me," he snapped.

I nodded, knowing what I had to do. Though Sasha was working on healing her wounds, all she was doing was helping speed up the process of their closing. We would have to clean them up first so they wouldn't get infected. I went through the same process as when I always do when we have injuries. I went to the kitchen and get a bowl and summoned the plants that I needed. I crushed some, took the petals of other. I could do this process blindfolded. When I was done, I had a bowl of clear light green gel-like substance used to clean the wounds, a smaller one filled with a deep purple paste mainly so that it would eliminate any of the smaller scars she might have, about 20 red flower petals to put on the wounds that would speed up the healing, since she had a lot of injuries, and two towels, one damp and one dry.

I went back to Iris's room and saw that Yusuke was already there, fiddling with a small bottle and a towel. In the meantime, Kuwabara arrived too. He was sitting on a chair in the corner, looking at Iris as if he was at her funeral. I tried not to look at him. The two were in a conversation.

"—got bored and stayed in Spirit World," Kuwabara said and Yusuke made an irritated sound.

"Hiei?" I asked, though I knew the answer to the question.

"Yeah. He said she'll be fine, which surprised me. I didn't think he cared." Kuwabara looked right at me as he spoke and I saw absolutely no trace of accusation in his eyes. He was the only one who didn't blame me.

"Yusuke, what are you doing?" I asked him, unable to hold the question in any longer. He had the bottle in one hand, the towel in another and was surveying Iris from head to foot.

"Trying to figure out where to start," he said vaguely. I didn't realize what he meant, until he dibbed the towel in the wide neck of the bottle and then tapped on one of her wounds on her arm gently. Rubbing alcohol.

Then, it all happened too fast for me to process what happened until it already did, mainly because I didn't _expect_ anything to happen. We were all taken by surprise. I heard a scream and, in the blink of an eye, Iris's eyes snapped open and one of her hands went to Yusuke's collar, gripping him tightly. She was breathing heavily and Yusuke was staring at her wide eyes, holding his utensils in a very awkward position. Her eyes didn't seem to process what she was doing yet. She realized quickly what happened, and let go of him. She dropped her head in the hand that was gripping Yusuke and took in a shaky breath.

"What the hell was _that_?!" she snapped at him, her voice ragged.

Yusuke was aghast. "Rubbing alcohol?" he sounded uncertain, still not sure what just happened.

Iris looked at Yusuke an made a face. "Get that thing away from me."

He finally caught on. "No. We have to clean your injuries." I was impressed with how diplomatic he was acting; I was expecting him to shout and to force her, maybe even strap her to the bed.

"I hate that stuff," she said spitefully, glaring at the bottle. "I can't believe I still have it in the house."

"You'll just have to deal." He dibbed the towel again and motioned to come closer.

Iris inched away from it and winced from the pain. "Yusuke Urameshi, if you get _any_ closer, I'm going to come after you and hurt you in your sleep!" She didn't seem to be joking. I chuckled nonetheless. I was incredibly relieved. Sasha's healing must've been enough for her to wake up from the shock her body received from the rubbing alcohol. I was glad she was well enough that she could threaten him.

"I'll take my chances." He came closer and she shied away.

"Perhaps," I stepped in to her rescue, "we can skip the alcohol and use some of these?" I showed her what I brought. Iris eyed the bowls suspiciously. "It won't hurt you at all. I used these on you before, after all." She stared at the bowls a few seconds longer and the nodded, resigned. Yusuke stepped away and I took his place. I took my time preparing everything before I finally looked at her. Her face looked in a worse state when I looked closer. Her right eye was swollen, had some minor cuts as well as some serious bruises on both cheeks and a deep cut on her lower lip that was still bleeding.

Her turquoise eyes were completely blameless though, even relieved, though I know that was because she didn't have to reacquaint herself with rubbing alcohol rather than just my presence. I piled up some pillows against the headrest so that she could sit up without her having to put an effort. I pushed her gently against the pillows and held her shoulder a second longer.

Her eyes were on me the entire time while I worked. I was so concentrated on treating her gently and relieving her of pain that I didn't even realize Yusuke and Kuwabara left until I was struck by the glory of silence.

Now that it was the two of us, her eyes had a different effect on me. While I was gently brushing off the blood on her cheek and lips, I noticed those turquoise eyes never left me. They felt like a pressure, a weight on my shoulders that I needed to be relieved of. Never have I felt the intensity of her gaze as strongly as now. I had to speak my mind, apologize somehow, but I seemed to be struggling to form the words that I needed. So instead of trying so hard to say it just right, I did something that I don't normally do: I let it all out.

"The connection between me and Yoko Kurama is different from the one between you and Luna," I started, keeping my eyes on the wound I was treating on her arm. I could feel her watching me. "You two have to agree on the change for it to happen. With me and Yoko, the person in charge decides when to change, that's why Yoko Kurama doesn't come to the surface very often, because I don't let him until I can't handle the situation at hand. However." I stopped at that point, sighed, and met her eyes. Her hand was still in mine though I finished cleaning her wound there; I rubbed the back of it with my thumb. "However, both of us could very well take change if we would put enough strength and will into that one desire. I tried to do that and I failed."

Her brows creased in what I knew was sadness. Iris was sad for _me_ when she almost paid with her life that I wasn't strong enough. "Kurama, it's—"

"It _is_ my fault," I said before she could get her point across. "You almost got killed. Do you realize that?" I felt deep anger and frustration that despite all my training I still wasn't strong enough. I didn't try to keep it in though. No, not this time. I let it come to the surface as I clenched my fist tightly. "This body, my body, hurt you, Iris. Almost killed you. I don't think I can ever forgive myself for that."

Her sad expression didn't change and I wondered how she could still feel sad for me at this point. I wanted to take my hand away, feeling that I wasn't worthy of her touch, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. As if sensing that thought, she held my hand slightly tighter with her feeble strength. _Don't let go_, I felt her telling me though that simple movement_._ I would never do that. I loved her too much.

"Kurama." She spoke my name clearly, almost demanding. I met her eyes again and saw determination and anger. "You didn't hurt me. You understand that? _You_ didn't hurt me. Yoko did. The fact that you two share the same body doesn't make you responsible for what he did."

I understood that. I was perfectly aware of that. We were two completely different people. And yet, I still felt resentment for myself, because still, whether I was responsible or not is irrelevant. The bottom line was that I wasn't strong enough to stop him when I knew he was getting too far.

I kept her eyes and felt anguished inside. Her eyes were so warm, so kind, so…clear of blame. When I spoke, I had to control my voice from shaking with emotion and anger. "This is the second time when my strength was put to a test concerning you, and I almost failed, and every time I get closer and closer. I don't want this to happen a third time."

Iris didn't say anything to that. Instead, she slowly straightened her back and with her bruised hand she pulled me gently to her. I leaned in and embraced her, feeling that I didn't deserve her touch but was too unwilling to pull away. I brushed her hair from her forehead and kissed her gently. After that I continued to treat her injuries in silence. Not long into my nursing, she fell asleep.

* * *

**A/N: I actually had a bit of trouble with this chapter. Never seeing Kurama in any type of situation like this before, i was unsure of how he would react. I dearly hope i didn't make him seem OOC.**

**Anyway, i hope you guys will like it. I had my share of fun with the rubbing alcohol, lol.**

**R&R!**


	5. Winds of Hell

**Luna's POV**

With Sasha's help and Kurama's healing remedies, Iris recovered in few days' time, though our tournament was delayed until she was fully healed. After all, even though she didn't fight anymore, I would, and I needed a healthy body. Even with the delay, nobody seemed to mind. They were all concerned about her well-being and that made my heart warm up toward them. They were good friends.

We were all at Iris's house, almost ready to leave. While Yusuke and Kuwabara were edging toward the door, anxious to fight again, Kurama and Iris were just getting up from the couch. He had been by her side since Yusuke brought her home. Kurama looked up to meet Iris's gaze, and momentarily, as I watched them through hers, his green eyes turned gold and his red hair turned to silver. The image of Yoko Kurama was staring at me, but then it disappeared as fast as it had appeared in the first place. I was obviously imagining things. Anger boiled through our body, and I felt Iris's surprise at my sudden outburst. I assured her it was nothing. But, at the same time, I vowed I would make Yoko Kurama pay.

***

We were back at the arena in no time. Yusuke seemed like he could hardly contain his anxiousness anymore as he was fumbling with his dice. I silently communicated with Iris that it would be a good time to change. Once we did, I felt my emotions almost literally explode out of my body, as they always felt when we would switch places. Iris's, in consequence, dimmed considerably, taking up a small place in my consciousness. The change was very sudden, but I welcomed it. I loved the feeling of control and freedom, and, most of all, I wanted a chance for revenge. My lips curled up involuntarily, but it was in no way a warm smile as I considered the prospect of Yoko Kurama being at the other end of my fist.

Kurama was still at my side, and as the last of the winds of change died down, our eyes met. He seemed to be silently communicating an apology for his actions, but I didn't acknowledged them. I have heard his explanation to Iris, but in my eyes, that didn't make up for the fact that he didn't even try to help her up when she was down and hurting. I broke the contact of our eyes and looked toward where Yusuke and Kuwabara were; they were chatting animatedly.

"Luna—" he started, but I cut him off, rude as it was.

"You don't need to apologize to me. You apologized to Iris, and that's all that matters," I said, leaving my expression and tone impassive.

"I wanted to help her," he said, seemingly knowing the exact reason behind my cold attitude. "I was just so…" he paused, struggling for words, which was unusual for him. That made me look him in the eye again and hear him out. "It almost seemed to me as if these hands would hurt her again. I could hardly make myself step any closer."

I looked him in the eye for the longest time, contemplating his actions, but his gaze didn't falter at all. Finally, I said, rather harshly, but not with ill intent, "Make a better distinction between Yoko and yourself."

Kurama's gaze hardened ever so slightly. "I love her, Luna."

My expression softened considerably and I smiled, feeling his words warm up my heart. I also felt a small shiver of pleasure down my spine and butterflies roaming in my stomach, but that reaction was due to Iris's feelings. "I know you do. But, in this case, your cautiousness to _not_ hurt her, might have hurt her more than if you've actually done it."

Kurama seemed to be pondering my words. I felt Iris's disapproval, because she didn't want me to tell him that. She didn't exactly tell me herself, but I felt it as she was looking at his turned back while she was on the ground. Finally, he nodded and, looking at me with his piercing emerald gaze, he said. "I'm sorry." Though I saw in his eyes that his words were meant for Iris, they melted away my cold attitude. He turned to walk away, but I wanted to tell him one more thing.

"Kurama," I said, and he turned half-way toward me, "she loves you too." The corner of his mouth curled up and his eyes shone slightly brighter. I mirrored his smile in encouragement.

"All right, are you two done chatting already?" Yusuke called to us irritably. He was tapping his foot against the ground, annoyed.

"Go on, Yusuke," Kurama said and walked up to him. I followed, grinning in expectation.

"I see you're ready to fight," Yusuke said to me, grinning as he flicked the dice and then caught it in the air. I nodded, feeling ready. "All right, the next group who will be fighting is…" he flicked it once again and caught it in his palm, "Kuwabara." Out of the corner of my eye I saw him punch the air with his fist in a sign of victory. "Against," he repeated the action, "Yoko Kurama."

My blood stopped cold at the sound of his name, but then rage boiled sense back into me. "No!" I yelled at Yusuke before I could control myself, "I was supposed to fight him!" I clenched my fists in an attempt to hold a grip on myself.

Yusuke scowled at me and opened his mouth to protest, but somehow decided against it. I didn't understand his change of heart, since Yusuke never backed down when somebody yelled at him. That is, until I felt a familiar presence pressing down on me and I stiffened automatically. He changed. He clutched my shoulder roughly and yanked me sideways, no doubt in hope to get me closer to him. I remained where I was and, in the blink of an eye, put my hand close to his chest – though not touching – and willed the wind to blow hard from my hand to get some more distance between us.

When I couldn't feel the presence as strongly, I turned around to face him. He was a good few feet away and he was smiling pleasantly once again. "Missed me, wildcat?"

I was so filled with rage I didn't think I could form a coherent sentence. There haven't been many times in my 400 years that I have been so incredibly angry. I didn't know if I would be able to control it this time, so I kept my mouth shut and walked away until the wall where the stands were rising. I sat down, crossed my legs and waited for the show to begin.

I would get my revenge later.

Yoko Kurama looked at me for a few more seconds after I've settled and then jumped on the arena, Kuwabara following shortly.

Once Yusuke gave them the signal, Yoko Kurama charged at Kuwabara, sending out a stream of punches and kicks much like he did with Iris, though this time he gave me the impression that he was rushing. With Iris, the process has been too fast for her to respond, but slow enough for him to enjoy it. With Kuwabara it seemed like he wanted to get it over with as soon as he could, as if he thought Kuwabara was much beneath his level and he shouldn't waste unnecessary time with him. With his demon speed, the human could hardly match him at all. It was over before it even started, leaving Kuwabara all bloody and bruised, but I was grateful he was still alive.

I was very tempted a few times to just interfere in the fight, but I knew that wouldn't do any good neither for Kuwabara or for myself, especially that Kuwabara himself wouldn't appreciate my interference. He wanted to fight his fights alone.

"You're such a loser! Wait 'till you're going to fight _me!_" Yusuke bellowed at Kuwabara, who, at the moment, was propping himself against the edge of the arena to jump down.

"Like you're any better. You lost too!" Kuwabara bit back with more force than I thought he could muster. He even swung his fist in a threatening manner. My lips twitched, but while I was enjoying their bickering, I was also on the look-out for Yoko Kurama, just in case he tried to pull anything. He was farther away, talking with Hiei and I let out a small sigh of relief. I quickly looked back at Yusuke so he wouldn't notice I was looking at him.

Yusuke snorted. "I'd like to see _you_ fight Hiei and last as long as I have!" he jabbed a finger at Kuwabara's chest. "But that's ok. No group is complete without a loser." Yusuke patted him on the cheek in a mock comforting manner. Kuwabara slapped his hand away and tried to punch Yusuke in the face. Yusuke blocked it and went for his own attack.

I got up and looked away, knowing it was my turn now. I walked up to Hiei, but stopped about 10 feet away, not wanting to get too close. "We're up next, Hiei." His unique crimson eyes met mine and I tried to remain impassive. He nodded and I went toward the arena. Right after I turned around though, I heard Yoko Kurama's distinct low voice say "She's mine."

I turned around swiftly and in the blink of an eye, I ran to him and wrapped my hand around his throat. "Careful what you wish for," I said, and recalled briefly our other meeting in Demon World when we were on a mission together. I tightened my grip slightly, but then released him and ran toward the arena, feeling as if I would've killed him right then and there if I wouldn't have walked away soon enough. As much as I loathed Yoko, I had to remind myself constantly that underneath the slimy, needy demon was an innocent human as well as Iris's love.

I shook my head and tried to concentrate. Hiei was already on the arena, standing a few feet across from me, his expression unreadable. I studied his crimson eyes, trying to find something, anything that he was trying to hide, but found nothing. He noticed my watching and met my gaze. My breathing sped up ever so slightly, but kept eye contact.

"Ok, you guys ready?" Yusuke's loud voice broke through my internal struggle.

I took in a deep breath. "Yes." Hiei nodded in agreement. "Go," was all Yusuke said. We continued studying each other, while I tried to no avail to see beyond his expressionless mask and he was simply accepting my challenge. He was neither annoyed, nor impatient with my lack of action, and neither was he taking the first step either. He seemed to be waiting for me to make the first move, just like Kurama, although Hiei was more of a head-first type of person. The one feeling that came to my mind according to his attitude at this moment was _relaxed_, and that was rather unnerving. I searched for Iris mentally and found her watching us silently in anticipation.

"Staring contest, round two!" said Yusuke in mock excitement. My lips twitched, enjoying his reaction. Hiei was silent, nonplussed by Yusuke's impatience.

I decided to ignore it too, at least for a while longer. "This is the first time we ever fought," I noted, my lips twitching in anticipation again.

"This should be interesting," he agreed.

"I'm ready to see just how interesting this is going to get."

"Are you ready to lose to me too?" he raised an eyebrow and I saw the corner of his lips lift the tiniest bit. Mocking me.

Whatever trace of a smile I had on my face was gone and I fired up at his cocky attitude, as well as he taking it for granted that I would lose to him before we even started. "And you lecture _Yusuke_ about _his_ attitude," I shot back.

"Yusuke has no self-control," he stated flatly.

"Yusuke—"

"What the hell do _I_ have to do with all this?" he bellowed at us angrily and I looked at him. "This is a fight, not a social debate!" He continued huffing under his breath. I fixed my gaze on Hiei again and he raised his eyebrow as if to say "exactly my point."

Despite my annoyance, I felt the muscles around my mouth relax into a slight crooked smile. "I wouldn't be so confident. It would make you look like a fool if I win." I was burning with excitement at the mere thought of fighting him. I took a step to the right, watching his reaction. He didn't move at all, but his eyes narrowed ever so slightly. I grinned, knowing he would only react if I did something offensive against him.

He matched mine tone exactly. "'If' is the key word in your statement."

"If the difference between our powers is anything like the difference between our height, I should have no problem fighting against somebody who has to use at least five phonebooks to look me in the eye."

I saw a muscle on his jaw twitch and I felt a wave of satisfaction. "I'll burn that insolent tongue of yours."

"I'll punch you in the ground," I countered back. "Maybe you'll find the other half of your body there."

Then I took off. I ran at full speed toward him and drew out my blade. I charged at Hiei, but he blocked it easily with his katana. I retrieved it, letting the sharp sounds of blades clashing against each other fill my ears, then attacked again. Hiei blocked it once again, but that time, he went for an attack of his own. We sparred like that for a while, always trying to get some advantage on the other. Attacking then retreating and attacking again. The sparring became fiercer as we both put in all our speed into our attacks, trying to take each other by surprise.

As Hiei blocked my sword yet again, I poured my strength into one more attack. Hiei, with his face impassive during the entire fight, deflected it and retrieved his blade at the same time. The sharp sound filled the air again, but instead of backing out, I let my body spin against the force and attack his side.

He saw through my scheme and decided to try a move of his own. He attacked, and I blocked it just in time. Then, when I looked up to look at him, he was gone. I saw flickers of black all around me and knew he was there, but he was running at full speed. He was too fast for even me to see. Then he appeared at my side and charged. I barely had time to block it, holding my sword with both hands, one holding the hilt, the other the central ridge, when he disappeared again.

I decided that while he was playing his game to confuse me, I called upon the wind and made my blade my medium. It was emitting a soft breeze, and it steadily got more rapid at my command, like a miniature whirlwind around its thin edge. Then I felt Hiei's presence and turned around, ready for his next attack. He came, but changed his mind at the last minute, going for my side again. I watched it as he was swinging it for his next attack. I saw his katana emanating dark energy, and, as I looked closer, saw that it was enveloped in a dark flame. He was using his Sword of the Darkness Flame technique, which wasn't as powerful as the Dragon, but still very strong. I gripped my sword harder and charged at the same time, our blades colliding. Air against Darkness pushing against each other and fought at the point of contact.

I let my energy flow through my sword as the wind blew even harder against the dark energy from the depths of Demon World. Sparks flew as the battle became fiercer, both of us pushing harder and harder, both physically and mentally against each other. Hiei was frowning against the wind and the amount of strength he was using.

Then, I poured out most of my energy into my next attack, as I tried the technique I used only once before. Wind started gushing out of the tip of my blade in a strong whirlwind. When Hiei saw that, his eyes widened momentarily, then his face became expressionless again. He retreated a few feet away from me, then—

"Sword of the Darkness Flame!" he bellowed and all the darkness stored into the sword came out in full force against my tornado. Once again, wind versus darkness battled. This time though, his Darkness Flame was out of his control; I could still manipulate the tornado. I saw how dark waves of color blended in with the uniform gray that it took from all the dust and earth that it picked up. Sparks flew as the tornado got bigger and stretched out toward the sky. Clouds circled around it rapidly, caught unwillingly in the battle. I forced myself to give all my energy into the whirlwind, making it go even faster, hoping it would bring me some advantage. Darkness didn't budge from its place, but more so clashed even more violently with my element, much like our swords did.

Then it exploded. Both forces seemed to be too much for each other and in the end canceled one another. I stared at the place where the huge tornado used to be, open-mouthed. I didn't expect it to be a draw, a battle between two such different elements. The wind blew hard against my face, but I willed it to die down to a slight breeze. I could still feel traces of the Darkness Flame around me. Small dark sparks dissipated in the air; I sensed one linger on my skin and it felt like a small shock wave.

Before I could think of any means of attacking, Hiei was already in front of me, ready to attack once again. I stepped back to give me some time to take out my sword and defend myself. His expression was unreadable once again. I knew that now it was a battle of pure raw strength and speed. Who was better would win.

I pushed my sword against his katana roughly and went on a full stream of attacks, going faster and faster, trying to find any weakness in his defenses. He matched my speed easily and had time to deliver some attacks of his own, but none of us succeeded in even making a scratch on the other. I plunged again, but this time, he deflected it with his hand against my blade, away from its sharp edge. He gripped my blade and twisted it around, taking me surprise. Hiei pushed my sword aside and brought his katana to the side of my neck.

He finally displayed some emotion on his face as he gave me the slightest smile of triumph, thinking that it was over. But I wasn't done.

I kicked him in the chest roughly, drew my blade from his grip and swung it at him at the same time. He jumped in the air, landed behind me, but since I sensed him there right away I could block his next attack easily. I went down low to try to trip him, but he jumped high in the air again, flipped so that he was upside down and drown his katana down like a spear. I jumped straight at him, knocked his katana aside at the very last moment and tried to punch him. He took my fist in his hand and pushed me back down with all his force.

The action surprised me and it all happened to fast for me to think about landing more smoothly. I hit the ground hard, the earth shattering into cracks around my body. I moaned in pain, being the first time that he hurt me in the entire fight and then I grinned. It was getting more interesting. I got up, feeling that he only inflicted some minor scratches and we started over again.

Our fight started to seem more like a game, more playful and teasing than really serious. I frowned as I thought about that, not knowing why I had the feeling that he wasn't really giving it his all. I shook my head, knowing it was my imagination. He had, after all, just gotten me on the ground.

Hiei backed away from my next attack and stood few feet away from me. he pointed his katana in my direction. "Time to end this."

"It's been going on for too long," I agreed, then we plunged at each other at the same time. I stored in whatever Demon Energy I happened to have left on the final attack, and I could feel that he had some flickers of Energy left too. Our blades collided again, but there were hardly any sparks this time. We pushed against each other with all our strength, feeling the fatigue after this long fight for the first time. I wanted to end this as soon as I could, knowing that without my Demon Energy, I would soon wear out of physical energy as well.

Then I got an idea. I waited for him to plunge into another attack and he didn't disappoint. He swung his katana at me and instead of trying to block it, I held my sword with both hands – one gripping the hilt, the other the central ridge – and held it over his katana and kicked him in the chest at the same time. That way, I prevented his future attack, disarmed him and put him at a distance from me at the same time. I flinched against the stinging pain from the deep cut on my palm and caught his katana in my left hand. I grinned at him, knowing it was almost over.

"Do you give up yet?" I asked, though I knew the answer.

"Not while I'm still standing," Hiei answered and disappeared. I held both my weapons at the ready and looked around for a trace of him. He appeared at my side, stroke, then disappeared. He appeared behind me, stroke, then disappeared again. He kept doing that, though his speed increased and his actions becoming more erratic and unpredictable. I knew he was trying to confuse me, so I tried to concentrate on the feel of his presence alone and not let myself be misled by his tricks. Finally, he came at me in a direct attack, from the front. I swung my sword first, but instead of blocking it, he caught it in his hand. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw blood trickle down his wrist. I went for another attack with his katana to his side, but he caught that blade too. He grinned and I gripped my two weapons tighter instinctively. Then—

He brought his leg up and hit me squarely in the jaw. I only dimly felt something tugging at my hand before I hit the ground, hard, for the second time in our battle. Then, when I opened my eyes, the first thing that greeted me was the tip of Hiei's katana. The next thing was his crimson eyes.

"You wasted your chance and now you lost," he said, and I assumed he was referring to when I took his katana from him. I raised my eyebrow and shrugged to myself. It was a good fight. I would take a good fight that I would loose over one that I would win too easily any day. I looked away and tried to get to my feet. His last hit was very powerful; I touched and flexed my jaw to see if it wasn't broken.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, Hiei did the most surprising thing. He held out his hand to me to help me up. I stared at it wide-eyed for a few seconds, too dumbstruck to do anything but that. After I got a hold of myself, I put my hand in his and let him pull me up. Hiei let me go immediately after that, but his touch still lingered. I looked at my palm instinctively, and saw blood there, but I wasn't sure if it was mine or his.

"That probably was one of the longest fights I've seen in a while," I heard Yusuke say and I turned to look at him. He was grinning, of course, pleased by the entertainment we provided. He turned to look at me and I met his dark eyes. "What are you going to call that?"

I felt my composure slipping at his out-of-the-blue question. "Call what?"

"The kick-ass tornado thing you do." He looked at me expectantly.

I shrugged. "I don't have to call it anything."

"Yusuke's grin widened. "Yeah, but it's more cool if you do. Like, I have the Spirit Gun, and Hiei has the Darkness Flame, you should name at least the best power you have." I shrugged again. His mood didn't seem to dampen by my lack of enthusiasm. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "How about Winds of Hell?" I raised my eyebrow in a sign of disapproval. "Wind blade?" I shook my head. "Blade of the wind?" No sign of response and Yusuke grew irritated. "Wild Tornado? Come on! If you don't like it, you come up with one."

I grinned. "I'll think about it."

Yusuke's face grew serious, already changing the subject. "I think we should postpone the final match for later in the week though, otherwise it wouldn't be a fair fight, with Yoko fully charged and Hiei all drained of energy." He eyed Hiei for a sign of protest. Hiei grimaced, but actually didn't say a word of disagreement, which surprised me. He seemed in a good mood today.

I eyed Yoko and saw that he noticed me looking at him. "After Hiei's done with you, you're fighting me."

Yoko raised an eyebrow at me and smirked. "Eager to be in my arms as I bring your own blade to your throat?"

I scowled deeply at him, feeling deep lines etch into my forehead, but my tone remained impassive. "No. I'm just eager to kick your ass for what you did to Iris."

* * *

**A/N: I actually had a lot of trouble with this chapter. This fight is definitely the hardest i've written so far, but in the end i think it turned out well. I'm sorry for the delay thought. I honestly did not think it would take me this long to write it.**

**Also, as a side note, since Christmas is coming, you guys might think it's weird, but i don't want to post anything bloody or fighting or anything like that. At least for this short period of time. And i'm pretty sure the next fight _will_ be bloody. So, despitet he fact that i was already late with this chapter, i will postpone it until after Christmas. I'm hoping sometime before New Year's i'll update it. **

**Anyway, i hope you guys liked it so far, and, again, sorry for the delay. :) And since i won't be updating this until way after the holidays, Merry Christmas to everyone! **


	6. Dance Partners

**Luna's POV**

Things didn't settle down. It seemed as if everybody had a certain edgy feeling as Hiei was recovering his energy. Yusuke and Kuwabara were enthusiastic and especially impatient about the next fight, the final round. Hiei, naturally, was the most impassive out of the team. Iris and Kurama, however, were both more than a little anxious. Understandable, both their alter egos will fight, maybe not to the death, but as close as we can get, Yoko Kurama due to his enormous ego, and me because of my intense loathing.

Throughout my long life, I have learned many things, things that I could only find out with experience and, sometimes, a long process of trial and error. If there was something that I've experienced repeatedly but I always refused to learn from that mistake was that revenge had next to nothing to be gained. Except my feeling better, of course. Despite the fact that my mind was telling me "you've done this mistake before; don't do it again," I always refused to listen. That was one aspect where I never learned my lesson. Revenge for me was immediate, automatic. If somebody hurt a dear person of mine, they had to pay in equal amount with their faults. It was just that simple.

The elders have always told me that revenge was for the weak and for the foolish. That sometimes you were stronger if you didn't raised your fist and just walked away. Well, if I was weak and foolish, then so be it.

In the next few days while Hiei was recovering his energy, Iris tried to change my mind about my fight with Yoko Kurama.

_If there is anybody who would, _should_, want revenge, that is me,_ she said on the third day. This was our last day. Tomorrow we would be going back to Spirit World. She considered it as her last chance to persuade me.

_I know your wouldn't want me to do this for your sake, so I'm doing it for mine,_ I said dismissively. She was momentarily confused by my word choice, but she didn't let it stop her.

_I don't want you to do it at all._

I ignored that. _Do you think it's fair what he did?_

_It was a fair fight._ Iris sounded sure of her words, which meant she actually believed that, since she was a horrible liar. _The only rules were not to kill the opponent or use any weapon that would._

_Do you even realize how very close you were?_ I bellowed at her. _If Yusuke hadn't interfered he surely would've done it. _She was silent. I gasped out a short sigh of relief, but I was too tense. _He has to pay somehow for his wrongs, Iris. If not, he will think he can get away with killing people at his whim._

I almost thought she would argue that he didn't kill her, but instead, she said, _What are you going to do?_

_Hurt him like he hurt you,_ I answered simply. My decision was already made.

_What about Kurama?_

The question took me by surprise and I didn't see the relevance. _What about him?_

_If you hurt Yoko Kurama, you'll hurt him too._

This time it was my turn to remain silent because I didn't even consider that. For me Kurama and Yoko Kurama have always been completely separate entities. It was always hard to remember that they're actually the same situation I am with Iris. I briefly wonder if other people had the same difficulty I did. I was torn. I didn't know what to do. If I fought Yoko Kurama I would hurt Iris. If I didn't, Yoko Kurama might hurt Iris anyway. Either way she would get hurt and I wanted to do this so it wouldn't happen again, at least at his hands. I thought it was something I could control, something I could stop. It turned out it wasn't.

It was hard for me to go against my nature. I wanted to fight. Every fiber of my being told me to.

_Fine_. I sighed, resigned. Though I hated it, she was right. I didn't want to purposely make things harder for her. I heard a similar sound in my head, but hers was a sigh of relief. _But I will take him on if he tries anything. I'm not going to stand for it._

A short silence followed. _I didn't expect you to._

***

The fourth day we went back to Spirit World at the arena where we held all our matches. Yusuke seemed to be barely keeping his impatience to leek out as he couldn't stand still at all. Kuwabara, for once, seemed a lot more composed. He stood by Yusuke's side, facing the arena, arms folded at his chest and silent. Hiei was already on the arena, adding some finishing touches to his newly-sharpened katana. Kurama was just now transforming into his alter ego so that the match can start.

I put quite some space between me and Kurama, knowing that the egoistical demon would appear, so I went closer to where Yusuke was. Iris decided I should remain in charge because she knew she would miss most of the fight due to her human eyes.

I threw a quick glance at Kurama and saw that he already changed. Yoko Kurama saw me, grinned, winked and then jumped on the arena. Hiei shed his black coat and threw it aside. The two didn't even wait for Yusuke's signal. Just as they stood apart, facing each other, the next second they charged at the same time.

And so the match started.

With both of them fully charged, it was quite a spectacle. Hiei immediately drew out his katana and Yoko Kurama, to match, created a plant attached to his arm that looked very sharp, and very dangerous. The weapon looked familiar, but I didn't search my memory.

Their weapons clashed with a very loud explosion, as if it was not only their weapons clashing, but their energy as well. While in that position, Hiei kicked at his opponent, trying to make Yoko Kurama lose his balance. Yoko jumped, retreated his weapon, spun around and attacked from a different direction. Hiei blocked it and jumped high in the air. A dark flame seemed to envelop him and I wondered if he was going to use his Darkness Flame technique to see if Yoko was strong enough to fight it off. The dark flame started growing darker and darker, its color almost reaching pure black. Hiei touched the hilt of his katana with his palm and the flame started dissipating from around as body as, at the same time, the flame started enveloping his katana in its evil energy from hell. Now I knew what he was going to do.

When Hiei started descending back to the ground, Yoko ran his hands through his hair and held something in his hand. I suspected it was a seed. Then I saw it starting to glow a fiery red, and it immediately grew to the size of his fist. Just as Hiei was about to land, Yoko threw the object in the air.

Several feet above the ground the object exploded and a reddish liquid sprouted from it, but instead of it dripping down, it stretched across toward the edges of the arena until it enveloped it completely. Now it looked like a narrow snow globe. More so, as the connection was established, the liquid solidified and thickened, making it very hard to see beyond it. I saw Yusuke walk over to it and poked it with his finger, then he punched it really hard. He bounced off from the impact. I suspected only a large amount of energy could break that barrier or Yoko himself.

"Dammit! Now I can't see!" he bellowed at the barrier angrily. I doubted Yoko or Hiei heard him.

The figures within were oddly blurred and I could hardly make out what was going on. I couldn't guess any more than I could actually see. I was a bit irritated myself. I wanted to watch them fight and see who would win. I hoped it would be Hiei. Yoko's ego would probably go through the roof if he won.

As I watched the barrier, however, it slowly started to shrink, closing in on the two fighters inside. It didn't stop until it was, I assumed, ten feet in diameter. Hardly enough space to move in a battle. I continued to watch the globe, even though I couldn't see. All I could make out was that beyond the barrier something was moving, slowly enveloping the rest of the empty space within. We all waited, somehow knowing that it would end soon.

Sure enough, the barrier dissipated not long after that. Hiei was lying on the ground, his body covered completely in cuts, most of them more serious than not. Yoko Kurama was sitting propped on one knee not far from Hiei with his hand to his chest. Hiei didn't pierce the heart, but he inflicted a serious wound nonetheless. However, because Yoko Kurama was still standing, he won.

I let out a small, low curse break through my lips.

Yusuke quickly jumped on the arena to look over Hiei and the rest of the team followed suit. I did too, but at a safe distance. He didn't check Hiei's pulse, but I felt that he should when I remembered that the two have long been friends. Then, he turned to me.

"Do you think you can call Sasha to heal him?" I nodded and he continued. "It's not real serious, but it was enough to knock him unconscious." He scowled and turned to Yoko Kurama. "What happened in there?" he demanded, "I couldn't see a damn thing!"

Yoko shrugged, unperturbed. "I knew he needed space to perform his tricks so I constricted him. It was easy after that," he grinned. "Like a fish trapped in a net." In the meantime, I summoned Sasha. She stayed in her Spirit form, as she did her work, but I could still see her soft outline. She sat by my feet and I pet her head, feeling her energy slowly calm me down. Yoko Kurama refused to say anything more about the fight and what happened inside, but considering the many cuts that Hiei had, I could at least make a guess. Yoko could've very well have used his deadly sharp rose petals roam around, and in that tight space, Hiei could hardly protect himself. I've seen him fight many times. The more space he had, the more chances there were that he would win. Bring constricted to about 10 feet lowered his chances considerably. I didn't even know if he got to use his Sword of the Darkness Flame or not.

As everybody circled around Hiei and talked about the possible things that happened inside the barrier, Yoko casually left the group and started walking toward me. I stiffened automatically, but I fought against my instinct to pin him down to the ground. I told Iris I wouldn't fight him unless I had to.

"If I recall correctly, you challenged me to fight you after my match with Hiei," he commented, a smirk flickering on his lips.

I took a deep breath and said the unforgivable. "I changed my mind."

He raised a dark brow at me, clearly surprised. "My Wildcat backing down from a fight?" I flinched, but he didn't seem to notice. He pondered briefly. "That fight changed your mind? Didn't want to go against the champion and the legendary thief?" He grinned again as if that explained it,

"You could be anybody from the lowest level demon to King Enma himself. I won't fight you." I clenched my fists and forced my face to remain impassive. I felt Iris exhale in relief.

"That's too bad," he said, and instead of walking away, he started closing the space between us. I made am automatic step back.

"What are you doing?" I asked warily, my eyes flickering toward the rest of the team. They were still around Hiei.

His smile was easy, relaxed. "If you don't want to fight, that's fine." He took a few steps forward and I matched his going backwards. Yoko used his demon speed to appear at a few feet away from me. I drew out my sword and pointed it in his direction. He raised an eyebrow and eyed my sword, his smile gone.

"You said you didn't want to fight, and yet you draw out your sword. Your tricks won't work on me." Before I could figure out what he meant, he disappeared and in a flash, I saw a foot coming dangerously close to my face. I blocked it at the last minute. He didn't give me any time to respond in any way because he went on with his stream of attacks.

I hardly had any time to put my sword back in its scabbard. He went high, I ducked. He went low, I jumped. He charged at my side, I blocked. I tried my best to deflect his attacks without actually inflicting one of my own. It was a lot harder than it looked.

"I am determined to have you," he said, with a strange gleam in his eye, "you're just too much fun. We could spend eternity together." We continued fighting in the meantime, but I realized, as we were doing this, that this wasn't fighting at all. His movements weren't threatening in any way. Even if an attack seemed as if it had a threatening intention, it was never hard for me to block it or avoid it. He seemed to be…playing with me.

I resisted the urge to gag. "No, thanks," was all I managed to say. I couldn't stand him being within fifty feet of me, let alone his proposal.

"Why do you deny yourself the pleasure that you obviously seek?" Yoko sounded genuinely confused. He jumped in the air, flipped, and landed on his right hand. Then, somehow, he twisted around and pushed himself off the ground toward me, giving me the feel of a bullet coming my way. Since he threw himself at me with his entire body, there was no way for me to block it and it was too late to get out of the way, so instead, I ducked it, and kicked him hard in the stomach when he was above me. It was the only way I could think of defending myself. The impact threw him aside, and as he tried to have a softer landing, he ended up rolling in the dirt, propped on his knee, his hand clutching his stomach. He looked at me from underneath his long, silvery bangs.

A low chuckle reached my ears. I saw his shoulders shaking ever so slightly and I realized he was laughing. He stood up to his full height and looked at me. "I got you to attack me back." I scowled and didn't answer.

Instead, I recalled the previous thing he said. "What makes you think I seek anything to do with you?"

His lip curled up as if he expected me to say that. In a flash, he was behind me, his hands clutching my wrists tightly. "_Still_ playing hard to get, I see," he whispered in my ear as if he was wondering when I would cut out the act and fling myself in his arms in surrender. In a flash, I twisted myself until we stood facing each other, his hands still clutching my wrists tightly. The next moment, I kicked him hard in the chest to push him away. He let me go.

He chuckled again. "That's the second time you attacked me," he grinned, knowing he got what he wanted. He manipulated me until I attacked him, though that was the last thing I wanted to do. Pure hatred boiled in my veins at the thought of being manipulated as I just have been. "Shall we stop this nonsense and proceed to the fight?"

I didn't answer, but maintained my defensive position.

With perfect timing, Yusuke's voice broke through my concentration. "Will you guys quit playing around and get to the fight already?" he sounded deeply offended, as I promised him a great treat and took it away from him at the last minute.

_Go for it, Luna. _Iris's voice almost startled me.

I frowned. _Are you sure?_

_Yeah. Teach him a lesson. Nobody should treat you like that and get away with it._ She was angry. Angry enough for me to feel it. Now that I was concentrating on it, it surprised me that I didn't until now. I rolled my eyes internally. Fighting Yoko Kurama for almost killing her was out of the question because it had been "a fair fight." It was perfectly fine, however, to fight him for making me angry.

_What about Kurama?_ Funny how I was the one asking that question now. She didn't answer, though I waited a few seconds. When I realized that question will remain open, I assured her that the moment Yoko Kurama will change back, I would tell Sasha to heal him.

Without another word, I turned around and walked back toward the arena. When I passed by Yusuke, I said, "We fight." I hardly noticed Kuwabara watching me intently, as if I was a wild animal ready to pounce on him, or Hiei, who was still unconscious on the floor, leaning on the arena wall.

I jumped on the arena and took my position, knowing that Yoko will soon follow. He didn't disappoint. When I turned around, he was already there. His posture seemed relaxed and that only seemed to anger me more. I used my many years of training to control that anger, knowing it would do any good to let it control me. Although, thinking of the fight ahead, I thought it wasn't such a bad idea.

Everything was silent around us. Nobody said a single word, not even Yusuke. This time, I decided to attack first. I plunged toward him and he disappeared. I didn't let that confuse me because I knew he would reveal himself soon. He appeared few dozen feet to his right, his offensive position on. I ran toward him, and jumped a few feet away from him, flipped in mid air and landed right behind him just as he was about to deliver a kick at my side. He saw what I did and spun around to deliver his attack but I blocked it and tried to attack with the back of my hand. He blocked it at the same time I tried to trip him. He jumped enough to avoid losing balance.

In a quick flash, Yoko put his hand at the back of his head and flung his rose whip at me. I dodged it at the last minute, but its sharp thorns grazed my thigh, leaving a long cut, though not very deep. I saw a brief smirk flicker across his face and I drew out my sword. I used it to block any attacks he would make with his rose whip while at the same time I tried some of my own.

Yoko stayed a safe distance away from me, and therefore had an advantage because of his weapon. He could attack me with his rose whip, but all I could do was block. My sword wasn't very long-range. I scowled and decided to change that to my advantage. Next time he attacked me with his rose whip, I caught its tip in my hand. The pain surprised me. I expected its thorns to hurt my hand, but I didn't expect the sudden shock to run through my body. I winced and let go of it automatically. I should have realized that it was charged with his demon energy. I couldn't touch it at all, so I waited for him.

We continued in this manner. He stayed a safe distance away and I didn't close in space between us because I was waiting for an opening. And it came. I smiled at his predictability. Yoko seemed to have gotten bored at the routine we were forming and tried to use his whip to grab my sword and disarm me. Just as his whip coiled around my sword, I grinned. Yoko pulled sharply in an attempt to disarm me, but my grip tightened. I held the sword in the air and spun around, closing in on him until the whip was completely twisted around my sword. The proximity was uncomfortable, but I wanted to deliver the final blow. I let my energy flow through the sword, within the whip and attack Yoko Kurama, with a shock much like his, but much more powerful. He let go of his whip and it immediately transformed back into a rose bud.

I didn't take my eyes off him in case he would try to attack me again. He chuckled, as is something amused his greatly and disappeared again. I held my sword ready, trying to sense his position. His movements seemed too chaotic, I couldn't keep up, but I kept tabs on him nonetheless. Then our game started again, but without weapons. I put my sword back in its scabbard when I saw he didn't draw out another weapon and remained unarmed. I learned the code long ago. Never use a weapon against somebody unarmed and never attack somebody who is down. Two golden rules I followed to this day.

He tried to hit me at the back of my neck to immobilize me, but I saw it, ducked, sidestepped behind him and kicked him in the back. He slid on the smooth arena floor, turned around, tried to trip me, but failing when I jumped to avoid his leg. In the same position, he tried to punch me but I blocked it with my palm. He didn't retrieve it, but only smirked as if he was let in an inside joke and was enjoying my obliviousness.

When he got to his feet, I tried to deliver a kick at his side, but instead of blocking it he grabbed my foot. That action surprised me, but I didn't have time to lose my balance. His grip tightened and he threw me in the air. I felt and saw the world spinning around me and I realized my grip on control slipping. Next thing I knew, I landed right in his arms. His golden eyes met mine and when I struggled to break free, he only tightened his grip on me until it hurt my limbs. It was a rather painful embrace. I heard a hoot from the sidelines and I could almost bet it was Yusuke. I didn't look to confirm my suspicion.

"You are an excellent dance partner," he grinned and bent down close to my face. In a moment of panic, to stop him from doing whatever he was going to do – and I had a good hunch – I clutched his face with my hands. To my horror, due to my haste, I had my hands on his cheeks. I felt blood rush to my face in embarrassment and anger that he put me in this situation yet again.

Yoko's face was close to an inch from mine, but I could feel he was putting quite some pressure on my hands to close that distance. I was grateful for my new energy, because otherwise I couldn't have been able to hold him away so easily. Still, I strained my muscles to keep him away. I succeeded in pushing him away another inch.

His golden eyes didn't leave my face for a minute. "Your tattoos display exactly what you're trying to hide," he commented, but I didn't understand what he meant. "Your eyes are glowing a soft red, and pink swirls are emerging from the corner of your eye. That clearly says 'passion.'" He stopped briefly to survey my face again. "Even now, as I am talking, your tattoos glow brighter and move faster. Come," he whispered, his voice softer than I have ever heard it, drawing closer, "come to me."

The shock left me speechless. He was reading my tattoos wrong. But I didn't have enough time to voice my comments out loud. Instead, in a quavering voice, I said, "No!" our lips were a minimal distance from touching. My outburst didn't stop him but I strained my muscles even more to keep his face away from mine.

I tried to lean away as much as I could, forgetting even that I was in his arms while all this was happening. "There are people watching." I was frantic. I let my mind come up with a reason, any reason why he should stop and my lips blurted out the first thing that came along. I felt my control slipping and I couldn't get a firm grip on it regardless of how hard I tried. This situation was just so preposterous I couldn't believe it was actually happening.

"So?" Yoko's tone was nonplussed and he didn't move.

"So," I tried to lean away some more, but his something was in the way. That was when I remembered where I was and I started struggling again, "You wouldn't dare." I felt like I couldn't breathe. His presence, so close, his hands wrapped around me, possessively and not seeming to want to let me go was taking its toll on me, and not in a good way. "Let me go," I gasped out, not at all in my usual strong, fearless voice.

"Wouldn't I?" Him always answering my comments with a question and his cocky demeanor seemed to bring me back. I narrowed my eyes at him in the threat that I couldn't voice. "Unless you'd rather do it in private." The corner of his lips twitched and I felt my anger coming back after the shock.

I couldn't afford to lose control again. I haven't, for the longest time, been so completely helpless and the thought scared me as well as angered me. This demon had that power and I couldn't allow it. I have never felt so humiliated. He applied pressure against my hands to try to close the distance between our lips again. "I said," I let my Demon Energy surge through my arms, "_let me go!_" I pushed against his chest. This seemed to take him by surprise, and he indeed let me go. But I didn't give him any time. As soon as I had my feet on the ground, I poured all my Demon Energy into my fist and punched him hard in the face. He didn't even see it coming.

My punch sent him flying across the arena and straight into the wall where the stands for the audience were rising. Dust blew all around him, obscuring him completely from our view. Save for the few pieces of earth still falling on the ground, everything was silent. For once, I could hear myself breathing.

Once it cleared, we all saw the glorious legendary thief sprawled on the ground. He was trying to get up, but he could only bring himself to lean on his elbow. I walked up to the edge of the arena, but didn't come any closer. He looked me in the eye, and without another word, the familiar fog surrounded him, as well as soft lightening signaling him changing.

Soon enough, I saw the fiery red hair and knew it was Kurama. The rest of the team members went to their friend's side. I quickly followed. I saw Hiei and imagined he recovered but I wanted to make sure.

"Are your wounds healed up?" I asked, trying not to let any trace of worry drip into my tone because I knew he would take that the wrong way.

He shrugged and raised an eyebrow as if he could care less. "Yeah." I nodded and mentally contacted Sasha to come to her new patient. She appeared immediately at my side and felt her calming presence soothe me after the ordeal I've just been through. I petted her head again. "Good girl," I whispered to her. Yusuke rolled Kurama on his back and we waited for Sasha's healing powers to take effect. Not long after that, I heard Kurama let out a soft groan and I was thankful that he was all right. The punch was hard enough to wound Yoko Kurama's ego, but not his body. For once, I was glad.

Kurama got to his feet and rubbed his jaw, checking to see if it was broken. His green eyes met mine and he gave me a brief smile. "That was a good punch," he commented. I shared his smile, but didn't say anything else.

"Ok, well," Yusuke started, "I'm not sure how to declare a winner on that one. Yoko Kurama won the official tournament but Luna defeated him afterward…" he trailed off, thinking hard about this decision.

I shrugged. "It doesn't matter, Yusuke."

"Yes, it does!" he said fiercely. I didn't want to argue with him. Although Yoko Kurama really was the winner, I couldn't bring myself to acknowledge that fact, mainly because I didn't want to. Fairness had its limits.

Yusuke debated with Kuwabara while Hiei was looking thoroughly disinterested. Kurama walked over to my side, looking serious. "I apologize." I remained silent and hope he took that as an acknowledgement of his apology though it wasn't needed.

Instead, I said, "Are you hurt?"

From the corner of my eye I saw that he shook his head. "No. Not anymore. Sasha took good care of me." The smile flickered on his lips again, but it didn't stay.

Yusuke and Kuwabara decided on pronouncing Yoko Kurama as the official winner of the tournament. Once that matter was settled, I heard Kuwabara take a deep breath as stretched. "Let's go home," he said and we all silently agreed to do so.

* * *

**A/N: Ok, well, i know it wasn't _as_ bloody as i made you to believe... Or even as i believed. In my defence, i wouldn't have posted it like this either. Anyway, i enjoyed writing this chapter, though i think the ending was a bit sudden. I made up for it by making this chapter longer!**

**As a side note, yes, they will continue fighting in these tournaments so that they can train for the next Demon World Tournament, but i'm not going to write about all of them. I think i will limit it to just this one, actually. If i write about fighting to much, you'll get bored of it before i wll even get to the actual Tournament. And i don't want that. :)**

**Sorry it took a little longer with this one. This was the last real idea i got or YYH, so i guess i'll just lay low on the YYH department until i get something real good to write. I mean, sure, i stll have the Demon World Tournament and to bring bck Scar Night, like i pomised i would, but that involes more fighting and i wanted to take a little break.**

**Thanks for the reviews, the faves and the alerts! See ya next time!**


	7. New Assignment

**Iris's POV**

We were back at Koenma's office, much like we had been six months ago. And we seemed to have to wait just as long for the mighty Prince of Spirit World to make his appearance. This time, however, there were no places to sit, which was very strange because Koenma always had some sort of couch or a chair to sit on in his office. Therefore all of us had to find some other way to accommodate ourselves. Yusuke, the rebel, was sitting in Koenma's office chair despite Kuwabara's protests and worried glances at the still-shut doors.

"What if he catches you in his chair?" Kuwabara fretted.

Yusuke snorted. "He's a small toddler with a pacifier in his mouth that once-upon-a-time had a lot of power stored in it, but now it is exactly that – just a pacifier," he said it all in one breath and looked up at Kuwabara, smiling cockily. "Plus, he can't fire me. He needs me too much." Then, he took it a step further and propped his feet on Koenma's desk and rested his hands at the back of his neck. "This is a really comfy chair…" I heard him mumble under his breath.

Kuwabara let it go and decided to sit down and rest against the wall, putting some distance between him and Yusuke. He probably thought that when Koenma will come in, he will automatically draw the conclusion that Kuwabara tried to stop him, but Yusuke was, in the end, on his own.

Kurama surprised all of us by sitting on Koenma's desk, on leg on top of the other, brows furrowed, eyes closed, and looking deep in thought. I stared at him for a while, as if not quite believing my eyes. Kurama never did anything as bold and equally obnoxious as sit on Koenma's desk. A slow smile started creeping in my lips when, as if sensing me still there, watching him, he opened his eyes briefly, winked at me, and then closed them again. I grinned, still somewhat confused, but I didn't ask him anything. I just shook my head at the two of them and went to stand by the door. With my arms crossed and leaning against the wall, I looked like a sentinel at a prison door.

Hiei went to sit down, cross-legged, and as far away from Yusuke and Kuwabara as he could. The room was quite spacious, so he had plenty of options. He rested his katana against his knee and closed his eyes, much like he usually did.

I was looking in his general direction, lost in thought, when I heard the vague sound of footsteps, but as they got louder and louder, I hoped it would be Koenma. That drew my eyes back to the door. Not long after, Koenma came in and in his teenaged form. Not expecting him to be the same eye level as me, I jumped at the same time he did, though he got startled for a different reason.

His hand clutched his chest dramatically while I recovered.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, outraged, like it wasn't obvious what we were doing. His train of thought followed my lead, because he looked around the room and saw the others. He groaned softly, straightened his back and then met my gaze.

"Waiting for you?" my eyebrow rose at him and I unfolded my arms from my chest. As I watched him huff gruffly and adjust his robe, Kuwabara got up and walked to my side. Hiei didn't even open his eyes, let alone move from his position.

Koenma didn't comment and marched forward toward his desk. Kuwabara and I followed close behind. Completely ignoring Kurama, he said, "Out of the chair, Yusuke." He sounded completely normal, as if it didn't surprise him in the least. Yusuke grinned and got up, unperturbed. Koenma sat on his chair, folded his hands on his desk and stared at it as if it held some deep secret. "Why do you guys always barge in my office when I'm not here? Is it too much to ask of you to wait at the door?"

His brown gaze rose to meet ours and that was when he noticed Kurama. He twisted his torso in order to see Koenma as he was talking to us. Koenma jumped back and stared at him wide-eyed. "Off the desk!" he commanded much more forcefully. "I expected Yusuke, but you, Kurama?" He got down form the desk and winked at me when he was with his back to Koenma. I couldn't help not to grin widely at Koenma's appalled expression. He didn't miss that either. "Stop grinning!" he almost yelled at me but it had absolutely no effect whatsoever.

Koenma continue to stare at me intently, but when I continued to grin, he sighed defeated. "I'm losing my grip." His tone was so pitiful, I felt the urge to go behind him and pat him on the back comfortingly. Yusuke seemed to have had the same thought because he did just that.

"It's ok, boss," he said in a mock pitiful tone.

Koenma sighed, annoyed, and brushed his hand away. "What do you guys want this time?" he looked at all of us for an answer as if wanting to get it over with and continue with whatever work he had to do.

I shrugged one shoulder and decided to be honest. "We got bored."

He raised an eyebrow at me. Yusuke decided to be come thorough in his explanation. "We've been training for almost six months now."

"How long are we supposed to keep it up?" Kuwabara asked, cutting in.

"Even with my brilliant idea, eventually things still get boring if you do them over and over." Yusuke continued right after his friend.

"Iris said it all, we got bored." Kuwabara finished, and by that time everybody else in the room was staring. I knew they were really close friends, but I never thought this relationship would take an even further step and the two would develop the Twin Syndrome and finish each other's thoughts.

Silence stretched out after the two spoke as we kept looking at them. To top it off, they said, "What?" at the same time, in question to our staring. I laughed out loud, but seemed to be the only one who found it funny. My laugh echoed in the room, and I masked it with a cough though it was too late.

Koenma decided to ignore the entire incident altogether. "What do you suggest you do? I don't have any new missions to give you." He gave Yusuke a very significant glance. It almost seemed as if Koenma was afraid Yusuke would quit because there was a dull spot in his Spirit Detective Career.

Yusuke frowned, looking irritated. Before he could say anything, Koenma continued. "It has been a very long time since things have been so quiet. Despite how you feel about this, I am grateful for the quiet. Not only because I know there is no trouble around, but it is also proof of your good work." Koenma said with a small smile and he looked at all of us. I felt a small rush of pride, realizing that I was part of the team, so he was thanking me too. I was in part responsible for these quiet times. I grinned widely.

Yusuke shrugged, accepting the praise, but still not happy with the lack of asses to kick.

"I have an idea," Koenma started, his expression brightened considerably by the brilliance of whatever idea he got. "I have a new assignment for you."

"Well, you gonna tell us or not?" Yusuke urged, not even letting him finish his thought.

"Getting to it," Koenma scolded, but didn't look the least bit annoyed. Now I was really curious what his idea was because it obviously put him in a really good mood. "Your new assignment is for all of you to come up with a new attack and train to perfect it." He grinned, waiting for our reaction.

"That's your brilliant idea?" Kuwabara frowned at him. I was so surprised by his impertinent question that all I could do was stare at him with my mouth open. He was getting Yusuke tendencies. He noticed me staring and just shrugged.

Koenma stared at him too, but once again, decided to ignore it.

"Somebody should really separate you two," Hiei spoke out for the first time and eyed the two of them. The two grinned at each other, but otherwise didn't say anything.

"You're beginning to have Yusuke tendencies, Kuwabara," I decided to voice my original thought after all.

"I'm surprised it took me so long to break him," Yusuke grinned.

Kuwabara wasn't letting it go. "So, why do you want us to come up with something new? Aren't the things that we do now good enough?"

"Well," Koenma looked a little uncomfortable, "technically, you don't even have to do this assignment. This is only for the ones who will go to the next Demon Would Tournament."

"So I won't be able to go this time either?" He frowned.

Koenma pursed his lips and shook his head. There was no swaying him, I could tell. "No, Kuwabara. I don't even want Iris to go. This is a matter between demons – humans shouldn't meddle in it. Genkai took her to Demon World behind my back last time. I talked with her to convince her that you don't have to go," he looked at me now, "but she went on and on about how much of an asset you are to the team that I had to give in."

Kuwabara didn't look happy at all. "So I'm not an asset to the team. I'm gonna be left behind and miss all the fun. Since I can't read people's minds, I'll have to sit here in Human World and wait for my friends to come back, just like last time."

The Prince bowed his head at the accusation then straightened his back and looked his Spirit Detective in the eye. "While the rest of the team is in Demon World, it will be your responsibility to protect Human World from any and all threats." Forlorn and disappointed, Kuwabara sighed, knowing that was as much as he could hope for. He couldn't talk his way into going to Demon World if the decision has already been made. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him giving me an envious look and I decided to pretend like I haven't seen it. I felt guilty, even though I knew I shouldn't, especially for something I couldn't control. I didn't ask for Genkai to knock on my door and ask me to come with her to Demon World, but I was certainly glad for the opportunity that she gave me.

"I agree with Kuwabara though," we all looked at Yusuke when he spoke, "it doesn't make any sense to me why you would want us to come up with something new when we're doing just fine."

"It actually makes perfect sense," Kurama cut in and Yusuke gave him a look that seemed to portray him both listening intently and giving Kurama a dirty look at the same time. "We're too well known."

"Everybody knows our attacks, and unless we will show up with something new and unexpected, we will be predictable," Hiei added, nodding and I was startled by his presence. I didn't even notice he joined the group until he spoke.

"Exactly," Koenma agreed, pleased that at least some people understood his point. I nodded to myself, thinking it was a good idea, but I had no idea what to do. My powers were broad, but I didn't know what I could possibly do that was new with them. Isn't everything I can do technically new, since every time I fought I used something else? Not to mention that I was a new member of the Spirit Detective team. There was no way anybody in Demon World would recognize me, unless I somehow happened to meet up with somebody that I fought against and he would also remember me. Which wasn't very likely. I wasn't as famous as Yusuke and the others because I haven't shaken up the demons' world as much as they have. The rant went on in my head, my thoughts so loud they shut out the conversation my friends were having.

"—plant that I haven't used before," Kurama said.

"Seems like a good idea. You have a wide variety to choose from."

Since I didn't know what they were talking about, I displayed my confusion with a very intelligent, "Huh, what?"

Kurama looked at me from the corner of his eye with a slight smile on his lips and said, "I said I could use a plant I haven't used before, or one that I've used very rarely. There are a few techniques I use all the time. The key is to avoid them this time." I nodded, understanding.

Koenma's brown eyes met mine. "You also could get off easily out of this because any inanimate object is at your disposal, even nature's elements." I nodded again. Then he looked at Yusuke and Hiei. "You two on the other hand have some work to do. And Luna also." He turned to me again.  
"She's a lot more limited in her range of attack, but is more powerful."

_I have an idea,_ I heard her whisper in my mind. "I think she got it covered."

Koenma looked satisfied.

_What are you going to do?_ I asked, too curious to wait until the meeting was over.

_I'll tell you later. Pay attention_, her voice breezed by serenely and I went ahead and followed her advice.

"– expect all of you to have something new for the next Demon World Tournament. Except you, Kuwabara," he added apologetically. "I advice you to train for your new ability apart from each other, so that when you all perfect your attacks and will fight against each other again, you will see the effects of the element of surprise, like a precursor for the actual Tournament."

We nodded and waited to see if he had any more to say. Koenma sighed and looked at all of us again. "If that will be all, I suggest you go back to Human World and start training. I have work to do."

* * *

**A/N: I decided to add more to this story after all. This story is now officially back In-Progress!**

**And**** now that I started this, I will finish it. I've been trying to figure this out for a while, and I think i got it now. I'm excited for it, it's a new idea I got, and it will be a nice transition to the next Demon World Tournament (unless I get other ideas...). Sorry for the long wait for me to post anything new, but honestly, I'm trying to get as much done as I can beore school starts, because I honestly don't know when I will be able to update again once it does. I am pretty optimistic that I will finish this one by that time, which gives me...roughly a month. Wish me luck!**

**Hope you like it. I'm gonna get started on the next chapter right away!**

**R&R!**


	8. The Gentlest Beast

**Iris's POV**

_So, what are you going to do?_

_Patience, young Padawan. _

_I didn't know you liked Star Wars._

_Master Yoda is a fascinating character._

_You're trying to distract me._

_Is it working?_

_Not really. What are you going to do?_

_Patience is a virtue._

_That I don't have._

Luna sighed. She was being very secretive about whatever idea she had for Koenma's new assignment, and for the life of me I couldn't understand why. I tried again. _I know Koenma said to keep it to ourselves and all–_

She chuckled, and when she spoke, she sounded highly amused. _That's not why I'm not telling you._

_Then what is it?_ I tried my hardest to keep impatience from invading my tone.

_I can't tell you because I don't know how it will go. I've never done this before. You'll see_, Luna added, as if she sensed that I was going to say more, possibly argue my case further.

Once we got to my house, there was only Yusuke, Kuwabara and I left. Hiei left right after we got out of Koenma's castle without another word or a glance behind. Kurama left not long after we got back in Human World. What surprised me is that right before, he took my shoulders in his hands, kissed my cheek, and whispered in my ear, "May I come see you tonight?" I stared into his mesmerizing green eyes, dumbfounded. Kurama hardly ever showed affection in public, even in front of our friends. He was much more open with his feelings when we were alone. Overwhelmed by the sudden change, I simply nodded.

The corner of his mouth curled into a slight smile and then he left.

From then on, I continued the walk with Yusuke and Kuwabara. I wasn't entirely sure why they were coming with me, but I thought that maybe they wanted to hang out for a while before Yusuke started training.

I was wrong.

When we got at my house, I asked them straight-forward, "So, what are you guys gonna do now?"

Yusuke answered my question with an even blunter answer. "I was hoping I could train here."

I didn't know whether I should laugh hysterically or be outraged. In the end, I just settled for the laugh. "Why here?" I wanted to know.

"Because I can't think of a better, more secluded place, away from society and people where I could do this. I need space," he spread his arms wide, as if to prove his point. What was even more amusing was that he sounded dead serious.

I crossed my hands at my chest and put on the most serious expression I could muster. It wasn't very believable, because I still found it all very amusing. "My house, my turf."

"Can I go somewhere in the woods around here?"

"I'm scared for the trees."

Yusuke shrugged. "I tried." He turned to leave, but I stopped him.

"Hey, Yusuke!" I called after him. He turned around and looked at me questioningly. "Do you know what you're going to do yet?"

He grinned widely. "Nope!" And he walked away.

Kuwabara stayed where he was, looking down at the ground. I walked a few steps toward him, feeling as if I was responsible for the situation at hand. I didn't know what to say though, because technically, I didn't do anything. If it wasn't for Genkai, I would've stayed behind too last time. No human is supposed to participate in this tournament. It was more of an unspoken rule. Like Koenma said, humans aren't supposed to meddle in demon affairs.

Despite myself, I said, "I'm sorry, Kuwabara."

He finally met my eyes, his brown ones completely devoid of disappointment and blame and envy now. "If you would read my mind now," he said in a tone gentler than I thought possible with his gruff voice, "you would see that you don't have to apologize."

I was taken aback by that. "Then let me rephrase. I'm sorry you have to stay behind."

He waved my apology aside and gave me his usual grin. "Nah. Somebody _has_ to stay behind, protect Human World. What would we solve if we keep the peace in Demon World but come demons came in here and stared killing people while we were away?" he paused briefly. "Nothing, that's what. We just have to prioritize. You're better off in Demon World because you can read their minds and warn the team if there are any threats they should know about. I'm better here because I know the area better _and_ I have my super spiritual senses."

I could feel that his words were genuine and I was relieved that he accepted the situation and didn't hold me accountable. I grinned at him, feeling a rush of affection toward him. "Thanks, Kuwabara."

He winked. "No problem. Just take care of the others, ok?" he asked me, sounding serious, and I was, once again, taken aback. Take care of them? I was the weakest of the bunch! "With your mind powers, you know things the others don't. There are a lot of demons that hate our group for all the good we did. Just keep your mind open."

I nodded.

"Come _on_, Kuwabara!" Yusuke yelled, he sounded annoyed. "We can come see Iris tomorrow if you want!"

My eyes widened and I blushed slughtly. Kuwabara laughed and ran toward Yusuke. The two of them disappeared not long after and I was left by myself. I sighed and without even stopping at the house I walked toward the familiar path and into the woods. This time though, unlike when I go toward my sanctuary, I go off the path much later. The walk was quite a bit longer too. My legs took control of my destination, and I let my mind wander. Even though Koenma said I could very well do something I didn't do before, this new assignment made me think.

I realized I wanted to have a special attack to call my own, just like everybody else from the team. Yusuke's signature move was the Spirit Gun. Kurama's was the Rose Whip. Kuwabara had his Spirit Sword. Hiei was renowned for the Dragon. Jin with the Wind Punches. Even Luna had her tornado. What did I have? I could control almost everything around me, but I didn't have anything to call my own. I wanted that. I wanted to experiment. But first, I had to see what Luna wanted to do.

Luna chuckled as she followed my train of thought. My overly curious nature always seemed to amuse her.

The silence stretched out for the rest of my walk. Finally, when I reached my destination, I inhaled deeply and looked around. This was the first time I came in the clearing during late fall. The scenery was almost unrecognizable. The trees that were gathered around the clearing and that usually held blooming cherry blossoms were now dry and leafless. The grass was now golden and utterly dead. The flowers that always greeted me when I came here were now long gone. I looked up at the sky, just now noticing how cloudy it was. It seemed as if a storm was about to strike.

_Ready to show me now?_ I asked Luna, hoping we would get something done by the time rain started to fall.

_Yes_, she answered and with our mutual accord, the familiar whirlwind enveloped me as if swallowing me whole. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the sudden feeling of release that I always got when we changed.

**Luna's POV**

I sighed deeply, welcoming the smell of fresh air in my lungs. Even though in theory it should feel exactly the same when Iris breathed, I always thought the air tasted much sweeter when I did it.

_The moment of truth_, I said to myself and Iris watched though my eyes. I could feel her intensity and curiosity. Those two feelings were very strong. We will see how my plan will play out.

"Sasha," I whispered her name, knowing she can hear me even if I only think it, "it's time to come out."

Her soft outline started forming in the air, as if a talented artist was sketching her right in front of my eyes. I poured out enough Demon Energy into her so that she was fully visible. It has been a while since I've seen her in her full, solid form and I realized how I missed her.

"Hello, old friend," I smiled at her and patted her head. Her intelligent, coal black eyes followed me intently. Then, somehow, it struck me. I hardly felt the loss of the Energy I gave her, and she was in her solid form, her most powerful. Before I discovered the extra amount of Energy that I had, it would've drained me quite a bit, enough so that I could feel it the loss. This was the first indication I had of the full extent of my new powers.

"I haven't been very fair with you, have I?" I asked her, knowing she could understand every word I say. Her ears bent backwards, as if feeling guilty that she wanted to agree with me. I went on. "I've always used you for healing and protection, but almost never to fight, even though I was fully aware you are capable of doing it." Her expression seemed to sadden almost. "I prefer to fight my own battles instead of sending you in my place. It is very prideful of me, I know. But you understand, don't you?" She rubbed her head against my palm and I smiled at her. I could feel Iris watching us, fascinated by our silent exchange of words. "I never got to see the full extent of your powers, but I am hoping I can see them now. You ready?"

Sasha took a step backward and spread her limbs wide in a habitual pose of hers. She was ready. I took in a deep breath and searched within myself for the source of my power, all my power. I wanted to feel the depth of it before I sent it into Sasha. My heartbeat, though extremely slow as it for demons, quickened in response. I wasn't sure if that was a response to the unusual amount of power or if it was just the adrenaline surging through my veins, but I welcomed it. It made me remember, all those years ago, when I had a human heart. All this Energy was pumping in my blood, flowing through my every artery, and seemed to stretch out toward all my extremities, from my toes to the very tips of my fingers. Energy was everywhere, it almost felt like I was breathing it too, like I could almost taste it. I could feel its burning tingle on my skin. All my senses were intensified as they embraced this new level of power. Then, I threw my head back and laughed at the pure ecstasy of it. At the same time, my Demon Energy exploded, sending a powerful shockwave all around me that had the strongest, oldest trees bending against its might and then soared toward the sky.

I closed my eyes. I hoped Sasha was ready for this kind of power. She's never felt anything similar. _I've_ never felt anything similar. But I knew she was strong. Now it was time to see just how strong she was. I tried to wrap my mind around this level of power, but it felt like I was trying to wrap my arms around the entire dome in Spirit World. Impossible. I pushed myself, trying to let my mind get adjusted to the sheer size of it. When I felt like I had a good grip on it, I focused it all on Sasha.

It left as soon as it came. I felt lighter without its pressing force, but it also felt as if a part of me was missing. I opened my eyes to see how Sasha was fending with it. Her entire figure glowed red from the Demon Energy. I couldn't even see her features, the Energy was that bright. Then, there was a beam of light, wind started picking up around her and right before my eyes, she started to…_change. _

I still couldn't see her features, but I could make out some distinctive traits about her. Her figure grew almost twice its original size. Her outline was as wild and untamed as it was clean and smooth before. I was going to strain my eyes further to see other differences, but it wasn't necessary. The red glow of Demon Energy started to dim until it was completely gone. I took a step closer until I was but a few feet away from her. I noticed the constant breeze that surrounded her and saw the occasional spark of Demon Energy.

I studied her closely and the first thought that I had was that she looked nothing like Sasha. The only thing that was the same between the creature in front of me and my guardian was that the pattern on her fur was the same, but otherwise she was completely different. While she looked like normal cheetah before, now she was anything but. Beside the fact that she was almost twice as large as any wild feline, there were very many other things that I noted. Her fur was much longer and wilder. Her paws grew in proportion to her new size. Her ears were also longer and slightly pointier. Her mouth was closed, like always, but on either side of her jaw there were two long, white and sharp canines. Her eyes, which were a solid and intelligent black, were now a burning red. When I was focused on her eyes I noticed something different on her fur. Then I saw it. The same tattoo design I had on my forehead, wrists and ankles was painted on her fur.

_She's beautiful_, Iris whispered, but I was so focused on Sasha I didn't hear her. I frowned and stooped down on my knees to look at her paws. As I suspected, the same design was there too.

She was completely unrecognizable, but there was no doubt she was mine. I looked up and up, trying to meet her eyes. I didn't realize how much she grew until I had to look up to her. "Sasha?" I asked and extended my palm toward her uncertainly. As if nothing had changed at all, she pushed her head against my palm in her usual affectionate manner. My hand looked so tiny, I felt like a small child compared to her. I was still awestruck at the sheer beauty of her and the power she imposed. I could hardly believe it.

"You're the gentlest beast I have ever encountered," I chuckled and continued to pat her head. Then I got up to my feet and met her crimson eyes. I smiled at her, "Let's see what you can do."

Agreeing with me, Sasha nodded and rubbed her entire body against me, happy that she could finally show me her powers. She jumped up in high the air and I watched her, fascinated, as she started to glow blood-red once again.

* * *

**A/N: New update! Hope you like it. I certainly enjoyed writing this one. Unfortunately, with school starting Monday, I will try my best to keep updating..somewhat regularly, but I'm not entirely sure if I will be able to. We'll see. until then. enjoy then new chapter.**

**R&R!**


	9. You Are My World

**Luna's POV  
**

I stared in awe at my guardian as she soared in the air. I was only beginning to recover from her incredible transformation. I couldn't believe my eyes. What once looked like a normal cheetah that one would see in the jungles of Africa, now looked like an untamed demon beast. I briefly wondered if Koenma knew this would happen, just like he knew about my power reserve immediately after seeing my new tattoos.

I shook my head slightly and continued to watch Sasha. Her massive body was pulsing with power and glowed the same bright red of the Demon Energy. I watched her in fascination as she slowly threw her head back as if she was looking at the sky and then the slow breeze that now seemed to circle her body at all time intensified. Her long fur blew chaotically, her limbs were spread apart in her habitual offensive stance, as if ready to attack. Then, her strong jaws opened and an ear-splitting roar erupted from her throat. The sound made my knees buckle and I automatically pressed my palms to my ears to block it out. It was the most horrific and primal sound I have ever heard. I closed my eyes tightly against it, as if that helped me at all. But then I realized that if I close my eyes I will miss what Sasha wanted to show me. Using more willpower than I thought I needed to open my eyes, they finally found Sasha again.

My eyes widened once again when I saw her. Her roar materialized in a blast of Demon Energy that flew all the way up into the sky, looking as if the sky itself had a scar that extended for miles and miles.

The attack lasted only for a few seconds, but it felt like much more than that. When she stopped, her body returned to its normal color and she ran toward me. The movement confused me, for she moved as if she was running, but she was still afloat. Then, the knowledge hit me.

_She can fly?_ I asked, both exuberant and fascinated by the concept.

_Yes,_ a voice, serene and calm replied as if the wind itself spoke to me.

_Whoa, that wasn't me_, Iris said, even though I knew it wasn't her.

That was when Sasha finally landed back at my side. I went closer to her to pet her head, though I was distracted. I looked from one side to another, wanting to see who replied. It was a voice unlike any I've ever heard. I frowned, certain I didn't imagine it.

Then I looked back at Sasha and smiled. "Did you head that?" I joked as if she could answer my question.

_That was me, Luna_, answered the same voice as before. My hand froze, my fingers tangled in her fur. I looked into her crimson colored eyes with their familiar intelligence for an answer. Could she really have spoken? Impossible—

_Yes,_ the voice answered my question.

_Sasha? You can…talk?_ I could scarcely believe it.

_Yes_, she repeated, and this time there was a hint of amusement in her gentle voice.

_That is freaking awesome!_ Iris yelled in my head, and it was very loud and distracting. I frowned, not comprehending. My thoughts were a jumbled mess and they would've been voiced as such if I would speak my mind, so I compressed them all into a single word. _How?_

_I suppose the massive amount of energy that you transferred into me had more effects than just on my appearance._

_So, you couldn't do this before… Correct?_ I knew it was a silly question, but I wanted to ask it anyway.

Sasha chuckled, and the sound was so pure and innocent, it made me smile. _No, I could not._

I pondered on that for a few seconds. _Are you going to show me any more of your powers?_ I asked her easily. Talking to her came naturally to me, since I've always talked to Sasha. The only difference was that now she could reply back.

_I'm afraid that if I did I would cause some damage around us_, Sasha replied, her tone serious now, but equally mesmerizing. I looked around and remembered that we were not very far from Iris' house.

_Perhaps back in Demon World at the arena?_ I felt like a child trying to sway her mother to buy her candy after already being told no. I felt uncharacteristically giddy about the entire prospect, but I couldn't seem to be able to contain it. Sasha talking was so wonderful, even though I realized that my head was beginning to be rather crowded.

Amusement crept in her voice again at my insistence. _Perhaps._

**Iris's POV**

Through Luna's eyes I saw Sasha some really cool stuff. I never knew she could do all this, and I'm almost positive Luna didn't either. Watching her, I felt amazed and awed at her power, and realized once again, how weak I was in comparison with everybody else. Like last year, I knew I probably won't last long in the Demon World Tournament, but I knew that at least I could put up a good fight. That is, depending on the enemy. If I had the extremely bad luck to battle against one of the most badass villains in Demon World like Yomi or Mukuro, I probably won't even last as long as I normally would.

As I watched Sasha show us one attack after the other and her and Luna were talking battle strategies, I began to drift into my own thoughts. I thought about that slim possibility. If roughly the same number of demons and apparitions show up and they run things the same way like the first time, there should be anywhere between one hundred and one hundred and fifty fighters. If more people get confident and s how up, there could be as many as two hundred. It wasn't very likely that I would be the one to fight one of those two. But what if I did? Not to mention that Mukuro and Yomy weren't the only super powerful, badass demons there. There were plenty others, many of them stayed hidden. What would I do if I came to fight somebody who was so much more powerful than I was?

_It's getting late_, Luna's voice interrupted my mental rant. _We should head back home._

_Ok,_ I replied, dazed, overwhelmed by Sasha's display of power and my being unconnected with the world while I contemplated. I tried to recall where my train of thought ended, but I couldn't remember so I simply let it go. _We can stay longer if you want._

_Kurama will worry if you're not home when he comes_, she said and I remembered that he said he would come see me tonight.

_Ok, let's go._

-o-o-o-_  
_

The trip back was short, since Luna has long been able to create portals to make traveling between the worlds easier. I made a mental note to remind Botan to teach me how to do that. If there is another crisis like last time, I wouldn't want to have to rely on her to come pick me up when I could rush to Spirit World myself.

Back in Human World, when Luna spotted the house, she saw a figure standing at the door.

_Crap,_ I thought, _he's already there_. Luna quickened her pace, to not make him wait, but he already sensed her presence and turned around to greet her.

Kurama nodded at her as she approached. "When nobody answered, I assumed you left to train."

"I hope we didn't keep you waiting long," Luna matched his tone in her usual formal manner. Kurama shook his head and simply waited. She took the hint. "I know you wanted to see her, so I might as well leave you two be." And with that, our unconscious agreement sealed our transformation. The only trace that she left behind was a small gust of wind.

When he saw me, Kurama's features softened automatically, closed the space between us and gathered me in his arms tightly. I relished in his familiar and comforting touch. He buried his face in my hair and inhaled, then exhaled. His sweet breath seemed to bring delight to every strand of my hair. Kurama kissed the top of my head, then his hands, which were around my waist, came up to my neck and tilted my face up so that he could kiss my forehead, nose, both cheeks, then finally my lips.

I quiet moan escaped my lips as I melted into his touch. It's been too long since I felt these lips. I minute of waiting would be too long. I could live for the rest of my life glued to his lips and I would be happy. Then, the most unexpected words came out of my mouth.

"Would you move in with me?" I tore my gaze away from his mouth and looked at his eyes. He was surprised. I was too. Those words came out of my mouth like the most natural thing ever. The thought had crossed my mind before, but only briefly. Why had they suddenly came out now?

"Iris," he started, sounding extremely disapproving. "Do you realize how much danger you would be in if I came to live with you?"

I frowned, not comprehending. "What do you mean?"

"I have never told you this, but I frequently get attacked at my house." His grip on my arms tightened slightly. "There is a wanted sign in Demon World with my name on it. We could be ambushed at any time."

"It would take a while for them to realize where you are," I protested. "And by then, we will have something figured out to keep you safe."

Kurama frowned at me like I was missing the point. He gave me another gentle squeeze, then released me and took a step away from me. "It's not my safety I'm concerned with. I've lived with this for a long time. I expect it and I deal with it without putting anybody else in danger. There is absolutely no way I would change that just to satisfy my need for you." I tried not to get distracted by his last words. Kurama's eyes seemed pained as he disagreed with me.

"I wouldn't be in any more danger than when I go on a mission with you guys. Or even worse, the Demon World Tournament. That is like, the epitome of dangerous," I said, trying to make him feel better and to make him understand that I don't worry about it, but as soon as the words come out, I realized that it was the wrong thing to say. Kurama frowned, his face hardening.

At that time, I took a small step back myself. That was when I realized we were still outside. I looked away from his cool green eyes and motion toward the door awkwardly. "Um, let's go in." I unlocked the door and we both went inside. Kurama followed me silently as I went into the kitchen and got a can of beer from the fridge. He frowned at me again, as he did every time I drank alcohol. I asked him if he wanted anything and he politely declined.

"Iris, that is the reason I wanted to talk to you tonight." I could feel the air around us change with that statement.

"What, my drinking beer?" I joked, even though I knew my drinking had nothing to do with whatever he wanted to talk to me about.

"No, the Demon World Tournament."

The words stopped me dead in my tracks. We were both still in the kitchen, me holding my unopened can of beer and Kurama looking at me sternly.

"I don't want you to go."

What he said somehow brought me back to my senses. Thoughts of me asking him to move in with me whipped clean from my mind, I protested. "Why not?"

"Like Koenma said, it is a tournament between demons. Humans shouldn't meddle in it."

"Koenma also said that I can go." I stood my ground. I had absolutely no intention of backing out. "Kurama, I've been on tons of missions with you guys before, and nothing happened."

"If by 'nothing happened' you mean that you didn't die, yes, I suppose you are right." There was a trace of sarcasm in his voice that reminded me of Yusuke. "But you came close more times than I like to think." His face softened remarkably and pulled me into a tight embrace. "So close," he murmured absentmindedly in my hair. "You have no idea how painful it is for me to watch you go up on that arena."

It was hard not to get distracted by his mesmerizing scent that flooded my senses. Regardless, I pushed him away gently so I could look at him. I had to make my point. "Well, how do you think I feel when I see you fight? When I see you get hurt? Or Yusuke? Or Kuwabara or Hiei? Do you think I like seeing you in danger? I can't stand it. We're in the same boat."

"Then why would I put you in even more danger with my presence? I wouldn't want to disturb your peaceful life."

I laugh out loud. "If my life was peaceful, I would die. Of _boredom_."

Kurama frowned, not finding was I said funny in the least. "You sound like Yusuke."

I sighed and finally realized I was still holding my can of beer. _I should probably drink it before it gets cold,_ I thought. I opened it and took a long swig. The liquid felt good going down. After taking a few more gulps, I looked at Kurama again. I put my can on the counter top and held his arms as I looked at him trying to reassure him. "We've been together for a while, but we don't have much contact outside the missions. And I gotta tell you, blood and guts are not a very romantic atmosphere." I gave him a pointed look and he smiled. I went on, more serious this time. "I don't like the thought of you going through that alone. We're together now. You shouldn't deal with things yourself. If you're having trouble, I want to be there for you."

Kurama looked away and remained silent for a good while. I tried my very best to wait and not ask him what he's thinking until he was ready to talk. I was starting to become impatient, when his eyes finally met mine again.

"Are you sure about this?" he looked reluctant, but he also looked like he wanted it.

I gathered him in a tight hug. "Of course I am sure!" I didn't mention the fact that I asked him on an impulse decision. It was still a good decision. He returned my hug tightly, but then I felt something change. When I looked at him, his face was somber again.

"What's wrong?"

"We haven't settled the Demon World Tournament issue."

I frowned, feeling a spark ignite. I placed my hand on his chest and kept us at an arm's length of each other while keeping my hand there. "There is no issue. There is not even a question about it. I am going. Nothing you say will convince me otherwise."

He looked like he would like to go on but didn't know what else to say.

"Would you quit being a Spirit Detective if I asked you to?" the question rolled off my tongue before I could stop it, incited by my annoyance.

"If it was just you, I would." His answer was so quiet, I almost didn't hear him.

I looked at him incredulously. "What?"

"I worry about the others too. It became my goal to fight for them, even more than it was to fight for the safety of Human World. If it was just you and me, as partners, I would quit if you would too. Then we would just live normal lives in Human World."

His answer shocked me. I didn't think he would say that. I was stunned. "But—but, what about the rest of the world?" I blurted.

Kurama sighed and when he looked at me, I was so overwhelmed by the love that was in his eyes that all I could do was stare. "Iris, you are my world. If anything happened to you, I wouldn't have a world to protect."

Then I kissed him. I kissed him long and hard. I needed him more than I needed anything. How could I not fight when he is fighting? How could I possibly sit home when I know he is risking his life? We either fight together or not at all. There is no between.

"I love you so much," I whispered against his lips as I held him to me for dear life. He was my life line. I felt like I would disappear into nothingness—no. I would just be nothing without him. I felt the counter top against my back, and Kurama's torso against my stomach and chest.

"I love you too," he responded between kisses. His arms pressed me against him so tight it was almost uncomfortable, and yet, at the same time, I wanted to be even closer, I wanted to mold into him, become one with him. My hands tangled up in his long, red hair, as I felt his lips leave a trail of fire from my lips, my jaw, and down my neck. He slid my shirt – that already had a wide neckline – down my shoulder as he continued his trail of kisses. Kurama kept tugging at it to go lower, and somehow that made me laugh.

"You'll stretch it out," I whispered, my voice sounding unlike my own to my ears. His eyes, which looked like burning emeralds, met mine and started kissing me again, even harder than before.

We slowly started moving toward the living room, though I'm not sure when or how we made that decision, since no words were exchanged. When we reached the couch, his strong arms gently laid me on it as he joined me, all the while our lips didn't break apart.

* * *

**A/N: Well-... I haven't here in a while...! I've been distracted. I got a new game, and I've been working on several stories on the side. Oh well. Excuses time is over. I'm back (I hope), and I'm going to try my best to keep up with this story and the rest of ideas I have for YYH. I have at least 5 more good ideas for YYH that I could write about. It's just kind of hard to juggle so many stories. I'm trying my best.**

**Either way, I hope you guys enjoyed it. Especially that scene at the end. *wiggles eyebrows*  
**


	10. Home is Where the Heart Is

**A/N: **Guys, I am SO sorry for the long absence! However, I am afraid that it will probably start being a regular thing for me, being absent for long periods of time like this. I don't have as much time as I used to, but I still write whenever I have the time.

Now, I hope you enjoy the new chapter. I am excited to announce that I have _tons_ of new ideas for YYH, problem is I have no idea when I will get around to writing them, since they are all relatively long. However, I will try my best to eventually share all of them with you. There are many, many surprises in store for the YYH characters we all know and love. :)

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**Iris's POV**

The next morning I woke up to the blaring sunshine in my eyes. I moaned sleepily and covered my eyes with my arm. Then I heard a soft chuckle and became immensely away of the body laying down next to mine. Of the bare skin that was touching mine, and the faint scent of roses. Suddenly, all the images from last night came flooding back and I found myself grinning like an idiot.

Kurama brushed my hair away from my ear and said, "Good morning." He nibbled on it a little and I pushed him away playfully.

"Good morning," I said, giggling. "I guess you had pretty good timing, since you'll be living here from now on and all." I lifted myself up on my elbow to meet his eyes, all the while keeping the bed sheet around myself. I was greeted by a pair of shining emeralds, and for the first time ever, I realized there was nothing else beside his happiness there. No concealed pain, no frustration, no worry, nothing.

Just complete and utter bliss.

My smile grew wider and I felt as if it grew anymore, my face would break. Then he kissed me. His hand went to the back to the back of my neck and drew me even closer to him, and I leaned in more than willingly. Kurama squeezed gently, sending shivers down my spine. For some odd reason that brought on another fit of giggles. When I got over that, I finally realized, rather late, that we weren't in the living room. I recognized the room as being one of the guest bedrooms, more specifically, the one that Kurama usually slept in when he spent the night.

"How did we get here?" I asked, looking around.

"After you fell asleep, I carried you here. You were so sound asleep, you didn't even stir." He bent and kissed my forehead. Kurama didn't seem to want to stop there and started leaving a trail of kisses as he went down toward my neck and then followed the curve of my shoulder. That brought back flashbacks from last night. I laid back down and took his face in both of my hands as I kissed him. Finally, he was the one to break away, though with great reluctance. "I'll go make some breakfast for us." And with that, he got up and I watched his bare, muscular back as he exited the room.

Once he left, I sighed happily and I relived last night, several times over, feeling myself grow giddier by the second. When I finally got out of bed, I wrapped the bed sheet around myself, and I saw that my clothes – which last night were thrown around the living room haphazardly – were now folded neatly on one of the chairs in the room, with a bloomed rose on top of them. Sometime while I was gazing at the rose lovingly, I was intensely becoming aware of a voice getting louder and louder in my head.

_Iris! Are you even listening to me?_ Luna was down-right shrieking in my head, sounding very annoyed.

_Ouch, yes, I am. Why are you yelling?_ I said, wincing. Frowning, I took the rose with one hand, my clothes with the other, all the while trying to keep the bed sheet from falling as I walked from Kurama's room to mine.

_Because I have been talking to you since you got up and you did not seem to hear me_, she fumed. _It was as if there was a thick haze in your mind that was clouding your thoughts. As well as my voice_, she finished irritably. While she was talking, I got to my room, put the rose on my desk, since I didn't have a vase, set my clothes on my bed and looked from some clean clothes to change into. I tried to recall her talking to me, but I honestly did not hear her voice at all until I heard her yelling at me.

_Ok, so, what's the fire?_

Luna sighed loudly. _What were you _thinking_ last night? Copulation is a right reserved for marriage! Surely you knew that?_

I was in the process of putting on a tank top when the unfamiliar word made me stop mid-action.

_What? What is that?_ I asked, carrying on with my dressing up routine.

_To copulate. To mate. To bed. To make _love_._

_What?_ I repeated my question, but this time with a much different tone. Before, I was confused. Now, I am incredulous. _You're actually lecturing me because I had sex? Don't worry, we were safe_. For some odd reason, I felt my cheeks getting warm as I talked about it. Then I realized, with horror, that Luna probably saw everything. I could die of humiliation.

_Don't be coarse, _Luna sounded embarrassed herself at my train of thoughts. _I didn't watch. But Iris, really, that was not a wise decision last night. _

I wasn't going to regret it just because she told me that I should've waited until I was married. But at the same time, I didn't want to argue with her about it. I was happy, and from the scent that reached my nose, it seemed that Kurama was making pancakes. I hurried to finishing putting my clothes on, and all I said was, _Wise or not, what's done is done. It felt right, and that's all that matters to me_. As if sensing she wasn't going to sway me – not that it would have done any difference on the matter, she let it go, but I still got faint disappointed vibes from her. As a very religious person, and born in an era were sex was even beyond a private matter, I understand her reaction.

I was putting the clothes from last night away when I heard her sigh. _I did that too, you see._ She didn't sound sad, but melancholic and a little amused at whatever memory she was referring to.

_Did what?_

_Me and Edward had a similar experience. Ours was a…surprise as well. The Queen was furious._

_Whoa_. I seriously did not expect that. Then my tone grew rather suggestive and I grinned. _You guys got carried away?_

_Yes, well_, Luna sounded embarrassed. I didn't think I could ever recall her sounding embarrassed, aside from earlier. _He wasn't supposed to come into my bedchamber, but that one time I let him._ Even though I couldn't see it, I could feel her smiling.

Somehow we both agreed that our conversation ended there, because neither of us said anything else on the matter. I gave up on putting my clothes away so I simply tossed them in the laundry hamper. Once I did that, I got downstairs just in time to see Kurama setting up the table with two plates full of pancakes.

We mostly ate in silence, with our knees softly touching. Toward the end of our meal, Kurama finally spoke up.

"There is another reason I came to talk to you last night."

"You mean, besides the…" I trailed off and wiggled my eyebrows.

Kurama smiled and winked at me. He actually _winked_. Everybody seemed a little out-of-character today. "Believe it or not, that was not part of my original plan," he teased, then continued on a more serious tone. "First I wanted to persuade you to not go to the Demon World Tournament. However, I took your stubbornness into account and decided that if I don't succeed, I was going to help you. I think there is an element you're missing."

His wording confused me. "Huh?"

He finished the last bit of his pancakes and set the fork and knife neatly on his plate. "I've thought about it, and I think you have the ability to control light." I looked at him, and I realized that my body froze when he told me that. My fork was stuck halfway to my wide-open mouth, so I popped it in my mouth and chewed it thoughtfully, though it got me nowhere.

I swallowed. "How can I control light?" I asked finally.

"You can control all matter, correct?" I nodded. "Light is made out of matter too. It's the collection of billions and billions of particles." Kurama smiled, sounding more excited than I felt. How is that even possible? Light is… well, I didn't really know. I liked math, and I liked cars, and I knew how to fix them, but physics was never really my thing.

Kurama interrupted my internal rant. "Let's go outside. It's a beautiful, sunny day out. If the same principle applies, you should be able to do this." He took my hand and led me outside. All I could do was grab my sunglasses – which always hung by my car keys, – follow him and think about how I've never seen him in such good spirits.

We left our plates on the table and went outside. He took me quite a bit away from my house, perhaps he was afraid that since I've never done it before, I would cause some damage. Kurama led me into the clearing that I've shown him before. He took me into the middle of it, then let go of my hand and took several steps back. I stared at the sun for a few second, while silently thanking for my extra-dark sunglasses, then looked back over my shoulder at Kurama.

"Go on," he said, as if he was prodding a little child to go out in the world by themselves.

"I don't know what to do," I confessed.

"Just do the same thing you do when you control all your other elements."

I looked back at the sun, shrugged, and decided to wing it. If this was supposed to work just like any other element, then this shouldn't be hard. But for some reason it felt harder. For every element I concentrated on something about it that made it more visible for me, more tangible. Fire and water and earth were easy because I could see them. But air wasn't as simple. It took me longer to be able to be able to master it, because it was a harder thing to grasp. Once I realized how to do it, it was easy. Now, I simply focus on the breeze, or, if there is none, on when I inhale and exhale.

Then I realized what I could do. I could focus on the warmth of the sunshine on my skin. So that was what I did. Forgetting that Kurama was behind me, watching, I collected my thoughts. It was harder than anything I've tried before, so for starters I tried something easy. I tried to collect all the light that I could see on my skin, just like I could restrict the air in a particular area. I placed my palms in midair as if I was holding an invisible ball and tried to redirect the light to go between my palms. It was a slow process, so I definitely needed more practice on speed, but I started noticing how a ball of light appeared, steadily growing in size. The warmth off my skin disappeared and become more concentrated in my hands.

I grew excited and started targeting the sunshine splayed on the grass in the meadow, and the ball of light got as big as a football. I frowned. Considering how much light I sucked up from around me, I would have thought there would be more in my hands. I looked over my shoulder at Kurama.

"Where's the rest?"

He walked toward me until he was by my side, eyeing the ball of light interestedly. "I'm assuming it's concentrated." I nodded and looked at it too. The ball felt like it was pulsing with power, almost as if it had a heartbeat. Then I suddenly felt scared to release all this power. I didn't want to damage anything, not even the trees. And there were trees everywhere, out here, in the middle of nature. As I looked at the ball of light in my hands again, I realized that it would cause quite a bit of damage. I looked at Kurama, afraid.

"What's wrong?" he sounded alarmed at my sudden change.

"I don't want to let it loose here. I don't want to destroy anything."

"Then release back from where it came from." His green eyes looked worried.

I concentrated on the reverse effect of what I did earlier. Concentrating it should be harder than releasing it back… Or so I thought. I tried to focus, but it seemed like I couldn't do it. I could not understand it, but something somehow was preventing me from reaching my goal.

"Take me to Spirit World," I told Kurama. I didn't know what else to do, and I couldn't let it go here. He nodded tersely, created a portal and we left to Spirit World. He created wings for himself like he did when we fought Sensui and made the descent much easier. While we were still in mid air, I let the ball go. I didn't think I could hold it much longer anyway. It was as if even though I could control light, I wasn't powerful enough to tame it, and it was slowly starting to get to me.

When the ball made contact with the ground, a great explosion erupted. A half bubble of light enclosed a massive area over where it landed and then it seemed to come upward at us. Kurama had to quickly stir us to the side so that we wouldn't be fried by the light that ascended and seemed to reach the sky. The explosion reminded me of an atomic bomb. Or a volcano. Or maybe a combination of the two. Either way, I was glad I didn't let it go in Human World. As the light slowly started fading, it left an enormous crated behind that was still emitting smoke. Kurama and I started at it in wonder as we slowly descended on cliff that overlooked the crater.

We stood in silence, my eyes tracing the trail of smoke. From afar. it looked as if the sky itself had long, graying hair. The sight reminded me of a once beautiful woman that withered with age. I sighed, and suddenly realized how drained I felt. It seemed controlling this new element absorbed nearly all my energy, like a thick sponge. I tried to cover up how tired I felt.

"Well, that was exciting," I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

Kurama nodded, though I knew he was agreeing with my tone more than my actual words.

"Well, I'm glad my theory is correct. This should give you an extra edge at the Demon World Tournament."

"But…" I paused, trying to phrase my thoughts in an orderly manner. "But there's no sun in Demon World."

He looked away at the crater again. "So?" he asked, in a tone very much like Yusuke's. "You can see there, right?"

"Yes, but—"

"Then you can control it."

"Yeah, but, there's no sun!" Either I wasn't understanding what he was saying, or the other way around. Either way, we weren't understanding each other.

Kurama finally looked at me, amusement making the corner of his lip curl up. "If there is light, you can control it, whether there is a source or not."

I pondered on that for a few minutes, but then my thoughts trailer off to a brilliant idea. "Hey!" my voice raised excitedly. "If I can control light, can't I control darkness to?" I grinned and waited for what I was sure would be a confirmation.

Kurama however, decided to crush my dreams by answering with a curt "No."

"What? Why?" I tugged at his sleeve, as if that would make him change his mind.

His smile grew wider at my childishness. "Because darkness doesn't have any matter. It is merely the absence of light."

I scoffed and just said, "Fine," feeling rather disappointed that I couldn't control something as cool as darkness. I let my imagination wander, seeing myself control the shadows when Kurama spoke again. "Shall we go back home now?"

"Nah, I want to stay and practice this some more…" my voice trailed off as I realized what he said. I stared at him in wonder.

"Yes?" he inquired, though by the looks of his smile, he knew exactly what I was thinking.

My own smile grew wider. "You're calling it home already?"

Kurama planted a soft kiss on my forehead then his green eyes met mine again. "Home is where the heart is."

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**A/N: Hope you liked it! Please review on your way out. :)  
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